James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

Reducing patient waiting times is a central part of the Government's commitment to increase equity in the Irish health system. One of my first priorities, therefore, was to establish the special delivery unit in June under the leadership of Dr. Martin Connor.

I know that the SDU in Northern Ireland - in respect of which Deputy Kelleher raised issues yesterday, to which I was unable to reply - was very successful when established in reducing waiting times. I do not propose to enter into an analysis of the Northern Ireland health system or to comment on the issues there other than to say that there were other issues at play which may not have been addressed. There is a series of reasons the initial, impressive effect of the special delivery unit was not sustained. The Government here is engaged in thorough reform of our health service. As such, what occurred in Northern Ireland will not pertain here. Underlying reforms that did not take place in other jurisdictions will happen here.

In my view, we need to embed performance management in the system to sustain shorter waiting times. That is critical. A once-off improvement will not work. The change has to be sustained and ongoing. Regardless of how well one improves, one must always strive to do better and must always have assistance to help one do better. As I stated earlier, to do that, one needs real time information.

As the Deputy knows, this Government has an ambitious programme of reform which includes institutional reforms and economic incentives which will make health care providers truly accountable for delivering patient centred care. I can assure the Deputy that I have the commitment and determination to deliver this agenda. I am very impressed with the work already begun by Dr. Connor. Our problems did not arise overnight and will take time to resolve but they are being tackled in a systematic and relentless fashion through the SDU. I do not minimise the scale of the task before us but I am very confident that the special delivery unit will provide a real performance management function for the Irish hospital system and will drive down waiting times.

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