Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In view of the fact the Minister has given a commitment that it will be benchmarked against best international practice and that there will be comparisons with standards in other countries, we need to take into account where we believe health care will be going in the years ahead in terms of primary care, community care and feeding into the acute hospital system, as well as, for example, the important area of palliative care. The review needs to be robust and to have integrity.

The point I am making is that people sometimes express a view that the policymakers setting the policy are also the ones who are obligated to fund it, which means there can at times be conflicts of interest. If one sets the policy and then fails to fund it, there might be an incentive to reduce the ambitions in the policy area.

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