David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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One of the big promises of Sláintecare is that we would, as best we can, decouple private care and activity from the public space and public care. That encompasses an awful lot, and part of the problem that we have in the public system is the huge amount of outsourcing that happens. We can look at agency staff, management consultancy and all of that area. In primary care especially, we have a real difficulty with being almost wholly reliant on the private sector.

I want to pick up on something that was raised earlier about directly-hired GPs, because it was put out there that it is something that we need do. First, could I ask Mr. Watt - and again, I would imagine that this a policy decision that has to be taken - is there any discussion around us moving in that direction? If we go back to our earlier discussion about expanding GP care, and that is only the beginning of the Sláintecare promise, because then the next part of it, I would imagine, is not just the GP-only card, but full medical card cover for everybody is ultimately what Sláintecare promised. We are a long way away from that. Given how difficult it is to negotiate with independent practice, be it dentists or GPs - and we can give many other examples - is it being seriously looked at by the Department that we could, in the short to medium term, move to directly-hired, salaried GPs?