Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What the Deputy can say to them is that I am very pleased that we have now hired new consultants in neurology in Tallaght. As he rightly said, many of my constituents also go to that hospital so I firmly accept the need for that.

Here is my big idea on health. My big idea was not to be the Minister who decided to come up with a big bright plan that would last for my tenure, but instead to work with people on all sides of this House to develop the Sláintecare plan. Fianna Fáil's big idea was to set up the HSE, which clearly did not work. The next big idea was to leave Mary Harney in the Department of Health and Children for years and not have Fianna Fáil Ministers touch it. We had big ideas; lots of Ministers had big ideas.

What we actually need is a cross-party plan on health that will outlast my tenure in the Department of Health. If the Deputy is the next Minister for Health, it might also outlast his tenure. We have plan, called Sláintecare that every party in this House has bought into. I believe that is the kind of bipartisan approach to healthcare policy that people want to see.

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