Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe that we should invest in the private health service instead of the public health service. However, the man who is waiting for a hip operation does not care how we get his operation done. He just wants to know what I am doing to do to ensure he does not have to wait longer. While we build up capacity in the public health service we will use the NTPF as a vehicle.

That is the ideological point on which we disagree. I will write to the Deputy with exact details on the monitoring framework within my Department. It is being put in place within the acute hospitals policy division of the Department.

I am not sure I agree in regard to the lack of specificity in respect of the NTPF. In my meetings with the NTPF, I noted it can tell one what one cannot always easily ascertain when one engages with a public hospital, that is, that in return for an investment of X, one secures Y amount of procedures by a certain date. I am happy to engage further with the Deputy, however, and I will write to her on it.

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