Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I always have a preference for the public sector. I am the Minister for the Irish public health service. That is why we are investing heavily in it. That is also why I have told the Deputy on a number of occasions that it is my view that we must be pragmatic about this. When I hear from people who are waiting for operations and procedures in hospitals, and I am sure when they talk to Deputy O'Reilly, they do not have an ideological preference as to where their treatment should be carried out. They just want it done. After years of an inability to invest adequately in our public services, it is going to take time to ramp up public services to the level we want to get them to. Therefore, I believe we should unapologetically utilise every possible resource at our disposal to make sure that patients get their treatment in the quickest time possible.

I think the Deputy has a fair point about the national basis for the NTPF. I will relay that to the NTPF. My understanding of the reason is that the hospital group structure is the way in which our health service is currently functioning. The Deputy asked me why I asked the NTPF. This body of work is not a debate about public versus private. It is a debate about systems. It is the statutory agency that manages waiting lists and waiting list systems on behalf of the Minister for Health of the day. We felt it was the most prudent and appropriate agency.

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