Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are putting €20 million into the NTPF out of a budget for the health service of over €14 billion. It needs to be seen proportionally when the Deputy makes those comments. With regard to the acting CEO of the NTPF, that is a position that is currently being advertised and interviewed for to find a person through the Public Appointments Service. I am not familiar with the context in which the comments were made, but I will put my view on the record. I want to see investment in the public health service. I want to see procedures delivered in the public health service. In fairness, it is the job and responsibility of the NTPF to procure services in both the private sector and through insourcing. The acting CEO of the NTPF, whose comments I will review, has a view and was expressing that view honestly, I am sure. We are utilising both the public and private sector in the interests of our patients. In fairness, in this work the NTPF is not being asked to do exactly as the Deputy has characterised it. It is being asked to look at the greater integration of hospital waiting list management systems. It is an IT piece of work. It is trying to make sure that the hospitals talk to each other and the consultants with waiting lists talk to each other in order that a patient being seen in one hospital can be seen quicker in another hospital.

See this speech in context