Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I thank my proposer, seconder and all the members of the committee for their support for me to be Chairperson. The committee is taking on a big task and it will work to a very tight timescale. However, it is a challenging and an exciting prospect for us to take a step back from the daily and myriad issues that affect the health service and to consider the bigger picture in terms of the type of health service and system we believe is most suited to Ireland, how we can transition from the current situation of a two tier, quite dysfunctional service to a single tier, universal health service, consider the most appropriate funding model to achieve that and how we can model and phase the transition from what we have at present to what we believe will be a service that serves the people of this country much better than is currently the case.

We must be careful not to overlap with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health of which Deputy Harty is chairperson. As many of us know from past experience, that committee, which deals with legislation and day-to-day activities in the health service, has a clear oversight role in respect of the different agencies in the health service and receives many representations. The work of our committee is to take a step back, examine the system and take a more strategic approach to the current model and the type of model we wish to achieve for the delivery of a modern, reformed and inclusive universal health service. We must be mindful of that to ensure there is no overlap with the joint committee.

We must also keep a clear focus on the terms of the all-party motion under which this committee was established. I have asked the Clerk to circulate the motion so we can remind ourselves what it provides for. There are two key provisions in the motion. The first is to examine how we can achieve a universal, single tier health service based on health need rather than ability to pay, how to transition from the current situation to that new model and what is the most appropriate funding model for a universal health service.

The second and most pressing element of the motion is to examine how we can re-orientate the health service away from the hospital-centric type of system we have at present and push the focus clearly on primary and community care. We all talk about the urgent need to do that. A more community and primary care focused health service undoubtedly delivers better quality of care, better health outcomes and is better value for money but while we talk about it, we have not looked at how we can transition to that model. It is important that we get some advice on how to phase that transition. It is all very well to say it makes sense on many different levels to re-orientate the health service to the community and primary sector but doing that in practice and the movement of resources away from acute hospitals to the community require very careful consideration and clear modelling. It will more than likely require some seed capital to get that transition to happen. That is the other key element of the motion which we must bear in mind. There are two separate strands of work, in my view.

I am keen to hear members' views on how we might proceed. I also wish to consider the types of groups or individuals we might invite to appear as witnesses before the committee. I have received many representations already from different groups. There are umpteen groups in the health sector with genuine concerns but it is important we try to take a strategic approach to this and invite, as far as possible, representative bodies or groups such as representative patient groups and representative professional groups. We should also be mindful of the commitment in the programme for Government to use an evidence based approach to policy making and that will entail having close working relations with people who are experts in the field from an academic point of view, certainly bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, the universities and other recognised experts in the field. It need not be limited to people in Ireland. There is no difficulty with bringing people from abroad if we believe they might be helpful to the committee's work.

That is my view on how we might proceed. I am happy to hear the views of members.