Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in. I wanted to ask them about a number of things. We will start with how we deal with the health services. The witnesses talked about the universal Sláintecare model being the one by which everything will be done in the future and how we will get rid of private hospitals and private healthcare. That will take decades to achieve. We have a situation in Galway right now where the hospital has a computer system that does not relate to Portiuncula. When we put in an X-ray facility, which we are doing in Tuam, the X-rays will have to be read in Portiuncula because they cannot be read in Galway because we have two different systems. Likewise, GPs cannot access systems to put stuff up so people can see it in hospitals. There is inefficiency in that alone. It will take a lot of money and time to get that right and get us singing off the same hymn sheet.

The witnesses talked about Sláintecare and how people should not be paying insurance. They are paying it for the simple reason they feel they will get nothing elsewhere. I do not necessarily agree that the emergency department in the private hospital is as good as the emergency department in the public hospital. What I mean by that is that, if you go into the finer detail, the emergency department in the private hospital might be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, or something like that. It does not provide the same service. It is different. If we are to look at taxation and reducing tax incentives for people to have private insurance, we cannot do that without having a pathway set out. It cannot just be a policy like Sláintecare is but needs actual meat on the bone with regard to things changing in the health service. Will the witnesses comment on that first?