Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The cost at the time of publication was €1.2 billion. Further costs were estimated to amount to a couple of hundred million euro per annum. We do not have these resources at present. We are increasing spending on health by 10.8%, or 8.5% in real terms. In the United Kingdom, the previous Government advocated a target of 6% growth in spending. It said it hoped to achieve it during its lifetime but has not yet done so. In both France and Germany, spending is increasing at a rate of 2%.

There is only so much one can do with the resources available. I hope that in the context of the contract renegotiated with primary care professionals, who are essentially the doctors who will lead the teams, and with the introduction of some tax incentives, we might be able to encourage greater private sector investment in primary care. There are issues concerning taxation to be cleared at EU level.

I recently met a number of GPs from Killarney who have adopted a very innovate approach. They are looking for relatively little from the State to build a state-of-the-art primary care centre in Kerry. This is the kind of model we need to replicate in other parts of the country. It is the only way we can achieve the kind of primary care strategy we all want to see implemented.

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