Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be succinct with my answers. In response to Deputy Fitzmaurice, I reserve the right to try to put more funding into the NTPF. I am currently considering that but am waiting to see the HSE's proposals in its action plan for waiting lists for 2017. As the Deputy knows, we have already put €20 million into the NTPF for this year. This is the first year in long number of years that we have had a dedicated waiting list initiative through the NTPF. I will revert to the House and keep Deputies up to date on that. However, I am not going to allow everybody in positions of responsibility around the system to reduce this to an issue of funding because we have seen the health budget increase by almost €900 million in the past 12 months. Funding is part of it but what we do with that funding and how we deliver the results on the ground, in the hospitals and the health service is another aspect.

The figures were published yesterday by the NTPF. I will give the House an assurance that they will be published until such time as the important work that the NTPF is doing with Trinity College Dublin to work out the best way of ensuring that we publish clear, transparent and validated waiting lists is complete. I expect that body of work to be completed this year.

In response to Deputy Martin Kenny, I agree that there is an issue with capacity. A bed review is under way. We have not built a new hospital in this country since 1998 and we should not be surprised that we have a situation where people cannot access hospital beds. If we had not built a new school since 1998, we would not be surprised that there were not enough school places. We need to build more hospitals and to increase the bed capacity in our existing hospitals. I will have a clear, crystallised ask in terms of additional bed capacity in time for the Government's mid-term capital review, which will take place this year.

Deputy Martin Kenny also made the very important point that we cannot have extra beds without extra staff. The most recent figures, which I saw last week, show that we have 104 beds closed within our hospitals because of inadequate staffing levels. I have put proposals in place to hire an additional 1,000 nurses this year. I am sensitive to the fact that the Lansdowne Road oversight group will be meeting the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, this afternoon. We have put forward a range of proposals to try to address nurse recruitment and retention issues. We are committed to holding further talks with the INMO and SIPTU on this matter in the coming days in order to avert industrial action. I would be happy to brief the House on those proposals once the talks have concluded.

In response to Deputy McDonald, I am very clear regarding my accountability. I have seen past Ministers for Health shrug their shoulders and say that they are not responsible. I am very clear on what I am responsible for in terms of this House, my Cabinet duties and the law of the land under the legislation relating to health. I am responsible for health policy and for funding the health service. I am also very clear on what the HSE is responsible and accountable for and that is the operational piece. So, my asking the HSE to be accountable and to live up to its obligations is not in any way to take away from my responsibilities or accountability. I want to be very clear on that.

The theatre in Crumlin will be operational in April of this year. We will see 194 scoliosis procedures carried out for children at Crumlin hospital this year, a significant increase on last year. I will come back to the House on this when I publish the action plan for scoliosis and I would welcome a debate at that stage. I expect to receive the plan by the end of the month. I am also looking at the outsourcing of some of the teenagers who are awaiting scoliosis procedures. I think there are 45 such patients in Crumlin at present. That is under way.

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