Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

That is a very good question. There was a cost estimate for Sláintecare, but it was done in 2017. There has literally been no update since then. Obviously, many things have changed since then with overall health spending being much higher than it was in 2017. Wages in the health sector are significantly higher. There have been lots of changes. Covid knocked the health system around quite a lot as well.

The Government provided some estimates on how much has been spent so far, but without providing an estimate of what the overall amount is. When we say that we do not know how much progress has been made, what we mean is that the Government has said how much it has spent so far, but has not provided a revised estimate of the total amount or of the number of the reform measures that have been implemented. That means we do not know, beyond this year, how much Sláintecare will ultimately cost. We are not health experts nor experts on Sláintecare, but we think the Government should produce a revised estimate of the ultimate cost and of how much is still to be spent.