Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I want to provide certainty to Portlaoise hospital, I want to ensure we have all the pieces of the jigsaw before I do so. We hope to increase number of nurses working in the health service by more than 1,000 this year and I expect Portlaoise will benefit from it. Regarding where we need to invest in more beds, I will be led by the bed capacity review.

I thank Deputy Griffin for his comments. This is the way the Dáil should work. It is much more interactive, when we get a chance. I do not try to be partisan in this role. It would be a futile exercise. Over the years, as we have seen on every RTE programme or news clip, while the Minister, Government and party may change, the problems remain. This has been a tough week for me trying to ensure we put a comprehensive response in place, and it has been a tough week for the people waiting on these lists. Those are the people we all care about. I have no intention of giving up on my responsibilities. I intend to redouble my efforts, and I need everybody else to redouble theirs. The Deputy's point on written responses is something I will look up.

Regarding Councillor Bobby O'Connell's request regarding "did not attends", from memory there were approximately 450,000 "did not attends" for outpatient appointments in the health service last year. It is a significant cost to the health service. To try to improve it, we are bringing in an SMS reminder system. We have it in place at a number of our hospitals, whereby patients are receiving a text message a couple of days before and on the day before their appointments. I want to examine modifying the text to inform patients of the cost of missing the appointment to drive home the point that if a person misses a hospital appointment, it has a knock-on effect on so many others.

On the question whether we require more funding, I did not want to do what past Ministers for Health have done the first time a crisis arose, namely, ask for more money. The Government has provided €14.1 billion to the health service. It is the largest ever health budget. We may require more funding from within the budget to be allocated to the waiting list issue or the NTPF. However, sometimes too many more important issues are let off the hook if I immediately run to try to find the chequebook in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

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