James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

There is no obligation on the Government to provide funding for private health care or private hospitals. The National Treatment Purchase Fund was established under Deputy Kelleher's Government to use the private sector as a stream for procedures. I never agreed with the ideology that only 10% of that work could be done in public hospitals. The Government is changing that. We will use the funding from the NTPF to get the best value for the taxpayer and the patient.

That does not mean just purchasing procedures. It means employing key personnel in different areas to increase productivity or purchasing from the public system on a money-follows-the-patient basis, as we have already done with orthopaedic procedures. In such a scenario, when a hospital puts in the bill for a patient, the Department will pay it. If it does not perform the procedure, the money will be docked and diverted elsewhere in the system where it can deliver.

See this speech in context