David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I said that to Mr. Watt at the time and I said it to the Minister when he announced this. He was before this committee and I asked him and the same bodies that were here subsequently, the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, and Irish Medical Organisation, if there was any engagement with those bodies prior to that announcement in the budget and they said no. It strikes me that the HSE went off half-cocked, made an announcement, promised people that on 1 June, cards would be in place - which has not happened - and now it is stuck in negotiations, with no delivery. It would have been better, from my perspective, for the groundwork to be done and negotiations completed or at least some discussions that the HSE was moving in this direction. It seems it was a rabbit out of a hat and here we are with no delivery. At some point, negations must come to an end. At some point, Governments have to act and say they are going to do this. It is unacceptable that even today, we cannot be given a timeframe for something that was committed to in a budget, to much fanfare, with roll-out on 1 June. I still cannot tell people when that will happen.