Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Those figures are fine. They are very aspirational. However, the Minister has not answered the question. How do we know that we are going to get value for money for that €50 million? We know that the NTPF has been problematic in the past. There is a major structural problem within the health service in that we do not know relative costs for different procedures.

Would the Minister not be much better off concentrating on why it is that progress is so slow on working through the waiting lists? We do not know anything about the activity in hospitals in terms of waiting lists. Theoretically at least, we could have a situation where consultants are being paid on the double, when they are already being paid to do public elective work but we do not know about that activity. We know there are certainly the problems that were highlighted in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme, so it is slow progress. Is this not a perverse incentive if the State pays separately and on the double for that work to be done in either other public hospitals or the private sector? What guarantee is there that we are getting value for money for this substantial spend?

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