Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the programme for Government commitment to look at a ten-year vision for our health service and to deliver a health service reform on the basis of it. The Joint Committee on the Future of Healthcare met for 11 months and produced the Sláintecare report. This is the first anniversary - 365 days - of the publication of the Sláintecare report and the Government has not yet delivered a response to that report. The response was to be delivered in December, in January, before Easter, after Easter, at the end of May and now by the end of June. The Government is deconstructing Sláintecare and reconstructing it in line with Government policy. The Sláintecare report, however, challenges Government policy. That was the whole purpose of the Sláintecare report.

Sláintecare has attracted international interest around how healthcare reform can be delivered in other countries but in Ireland we have not delivered a response to Sláintecare. There is no plan B. Sláintecare is the plan.

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