Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

In respect of specific areas, the Minister has, as she is entitled to do under the various Acts, indicated the priority action she wants to be taken in the context of the service plans the Health Service Executive has presented to her for the purpose of outlining how services will be applied next year. That is part of the process. She has been able to make informed decisions based on the up-to-date statistical analysis provided in the annual report of the National Treatment Purchase Fund. This is another example of the system working rather than not doing so. The system is improving the situation for ordinary citizens in the context of obtaining access to important health services, such as operations and surgical procedures.

On enhanced performance and how to provide recognition or acknowledgement, financial or otherwise, to those managers or staff in the health service who are working well and meeting their targets, the task force is of the view that the transparent performance management system must be strengthened and developed. There is then the question of how to provide recognition such as that to which I refer in a way that will incentivise performance and allow people to pursue excellence to the greatest extent possible while also eliminating underperformance, which is a major problem. In such circumstances, one must negotiate and work with staff representatives on how best to proceed. I do not have a difficulty with this in principle, but we must also maintain the public service ethos, which is an important consideration.

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