James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under the Health Act 2004, the HSE has a 21-day period from the publication of the Estimates for supply services on budget day to submit its 2014 national service plan for my consideration. This would have required the HSE to finalise and submit its service plan for next year by Tuesday of last week - 5 November. The Act does, however, allow me as Minister for Health to provide the HSE with any such other period that I may wish to allow in this regard. In view of the very challenging nature of this year's budget and the fact that it has come early, I have written to the HSE and advised it that I have allowed it another ten days until 15 November to adopt and submit its 2014 service plan for my consideration. I must wait and see if that is possible given the challenges it faces. It may need a further extension which I will consider if that is the case.

This extended period also recognises the earlier than usual presentation of the 2014 budget. Clearly, there are huge challenges in addressing the budgetary figures we have been given this year. My priority, as I made very clear at all times, is patient safety followed by having patients seen in as timely a fashion as possible. As everybody in this House knows, if somebody's inpatient elective or planned procedure is cancelled and delayed for too long, they end up presenting as an emergency, which is more expensive to the State but much more worryingly, outcomes from emergency surgery are never as good as outcomes from elective surgery when they are considered in statistical fashion. That is not necessarily true for the individual but is true overall.

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