Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When the Taoiseach changed the names and responsibilities of the Cabinet committees, he stated that they would be focused on driving forward delivery of policies. At around the same time, the Taoiseach talked about making sure the public would see concrete outcomes on specific problems. One striking aspect of what has happened since then is the emphasis has been on talking about process and promises without any concrete link to service targets. Soon after Deputy Harris, for example, took over the Department of Health, he announced that the health strategy, launched by the former Minister, Senator Reilly, and being implemented by Deputy Harris' predecessor, the Taoiseach, was to be abandoned. In its place is due to come an official response to the Sláintecare report. Can the Taoiseach explain how the Government could determine the capital investment needs of the health sector before it has decided on the overall health policies?

More importantly, can the Taoiseach tell us which specific service levels the Government is promising to achieve with the announced investments? In the area of mental health, there has been a sustained failure to deliver on core service commitments. We received absolute assurances from the Taoiseach's predecessor and from the Taoiseach that targets would be met but, unfortunately, they have not been met. All we have heard is the usual hand-wringing from Government and that it is someone else's fault. It is a serious issue in terms of the non-filling of posts across the mental health service. Are there specific service level commitments which the Taoiseach is willing to stand over because I happen to know that the little due diligence that has been done on some of the physical infrastructure investments has been done in the context of an overall assessment of health needs in given areas, such as chronic illness and the growing ageing demographic. There are very serious issues in terms of how these investments have been announced in the absence of that kind of service level assessment.

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