Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To a great extent the Deputy and I are agreed on the central issue, how to introduce a more refined health indicator when we do not have the information with which to do that. Where I disagree with him, however, is that while this is a stand-alone Bill, as introduced, there is a combination of issues that need to come together in respect of how we treat people who need treatment, whether in the acute hospitals, or in community-based services. We are desperately trying to provide community-based services, whether in primary care, which is progressing, although it is difficult to see that unless it pops up next door to one, or in the review of the fair deal scheme or home-based services. We will make significant progress on this next year. The insurers are beginning to do the same, as the Deputy rightly says. The type of service they are starting to deliver at home is incredible. It is a combination of issues. Health services have always suffered from the quick fix, knee jerk reaction to what is in fact very delicate. One needs to stand back and consider it in a more nuanced and protracted way. This is a stand-alone Bill. It is on the way to what we need to do. We are dealing with a complicated system of many strands and are working our way through it.

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