Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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There are a few areas where we will be spending more but it will be funding public patients. The aim of us using capacity from the private or independent sector is purely with a view to treating as many public patients as possible. As the Deputy will be aware, there have been several safety net agreements put in place. This means that when the capacity within the HSE hospital system is put under a lot of pressure by Covid we can activate capacity within the private or independent sector. There is a fourth safety net agreement being put in place at the moment for exactly that reason. Our hospitals have individual relationships with private hospitals that they use for operating theatres, bed capacity and sometimes for critical care capacity. An example is paediatric orthopaedics. Children’s Health Ireland sometimes uses capacity in the Blackrock Clinic to make sure children can get treated, which is an example of a local arrangement. The big one is the NTPF. Last year, the allocation for that was €100 million and this year the allocation is €150 million.

I know some member are uncomfortable with the money going into and being paid out to private providers but there are two points to make. First, last year the majority of the NTPF money went into public hospitals. Some might think it is all spent on the private sector but it is not. I have a figure of 60% in my head for the proportion of funds that were used for insourcing last year. This concerned people working longer hours in the public hospitals and so forth. Second, I agree with the Deputy’s comment, in that we are investing so much money in the public health service because, in time, it will be able to handle all of our population’s requirements. Universal healthcare as an ideology remains neutral on which hospital someone gets care in and it is about the patient rather than the provider. Ireland, the UK, Germany and Canada all have different models for providing this. Some are largely public, some are a mix and some are independent and non-profit trusts. In Ireland, this Government and, I think, all Members are committed to a public health service that has sufficient capacity to treat all patients in the Republic.