Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are two parts to that question. I think the Deputy knows I do not accept there is €20 million for Sláintecare this year; there is €20 million in the Sláintecare integration fund. I will not rerun my view from my opening statement. Even the €27 million for the GP contract this year is clearly Sláintecare. The DPS and prescription charges are directly from Sláintecare in the budget. We have the figure of over €200 million this year for Sláintecare. I know there will be a briefing later at which the Deputy can scrutinise that, but that is the figure we have.

I accept the Sláintecare plan; however, I do not accept and have never accepted the sequencing of it. While I do not speak for the Deputy, I doubt if he would either. I am not sure if the Chairman would accept it either. If I accepted the Sláintecare plan sequencing, I would have introduced free GP care for another 500,000 people this year, which obviously would have come at a considerable cost, but would have collapsed general practice, without dealing with how to fund general practice. Through the work of Laura Magahy, we have tried to sequence the aim of Sláintecare in a better way.