Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Having an action plan for emergency departments by the end of the year.

Let me refer to the restoration of the National Treatment Purchase Fund which I initiated back in 2002. Over a sustained period it brought down inpatient waiting lists for adults to six months and for children down to three months. It was, however, more than a matter of the allocation of funding which was obviously very important; it also involved a new way of dealing with waiting lists in public hospitals, through utilising excess capacity in the private sector, in addition to using capacity within the public hospital sector effectively to reduce waiting lists. There is a great opportunity for the new Minister to achieve real action if he draws on the expertise that was available under the older treatment purchase scheme. There was a reluctance about this proposal on the part of some on the Fine Gael side during the talks on the facilitation of a minority Government and only €15 million was allocated, but more than that sum will be needed over time. Believe me - the method proved to be very effective in ring-fencing funding that went directly to the patient waiting on a list. We got rid of the era in which people were waiting for two or three years for a hip or cataract operation, for example.

My third point on the Cabinet sub-committee is related to drugs pricing and the policy on the pharmaceutical industry. On the one hand, we encourage pharmaceutical companies to come here through foreign direct investment initiatives and say we want Ireland to become a centre of pharmaceutical activity, industry and research, while, on the other, we have in recent years been very poor on new drugs and technologies and having a proper model for thelm.

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