Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 December 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health

9:30 am

Mr. Robert Watt:

Yes, I think almost 40 have been built since 2018. It is a very significant improvement in the capacity of the system to treat people closer to home within the community.

There has been an increase in home help hours. We touched upon this earlier. The home help supports budget has increased by €150 million compared with last year, a very significant increase. I refer to all the various elements, including increasing capacity and improving care for people near the community. We touched earlier on the regional health areas, which we are working on, and other aspects. There is significant progress. Yesterday we had a meeting of the new Sláintecare implementation board, the new structure we have set up. We looked at plans for waiting lists, regional health authorities, enhanced community care and the Sláintecare integration fund. We looked at the largest projects at our meeting yesterday.