John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I and other members of the committee believe it is very important to have the three groups on board. There will not be a meaningful contract otherwise. I hope the Minister can take that on board.

The Minister spoke about bringing the HSE under the Department and perhaps considering a director general over the whole structure. Would that bring politics more into the running of the HSE as opposed to less into it? We all have the ambition to try to take politics out of the future running of our health care service as much as possible such that it will be independent of whoever is in power and follow and stick to a plan.

The Minister referred to progress and to the initiative for the under-sixes. I do not believe that was progress; it was more of a retrograde step. Any future access has to be on the basis of need. Programmes should be extended to those in need. In this regard, reference was made to those with chronic illnesses, etc. These are the people whom we should be targeting. Clogging up the system with people who do not necessarily need the benefit in question is not the way to go forward.

Primary care was mentioned. Everybody in this room is very much on par in this regard. Investment in primary care, in addition to accountability and governance, is critical if we are to provide a good service in the future.

With regard to the hospital groups, the Minister spoke about more integration and carrying out more procedures in the smaller hospitals. It is a great idea but, in reality, unless there is somebody accountable for driving this and making it happen, it just will not happen. Hospitals will look after their own backyard. Unless there is somebody in charge of each hospital group, with, I suggest, a board of management to which they are answerable, we will not make progress in this regard. That is something we can put in place quickly.