Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions and for their overall support for the Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2018. I have listened carefully to the speakers and share some of their concerns and experiences. I do not agree with some of things that have been said. I believe we have a health service where there is transparency and accountability. We might need a little bit more of it, but every day I see people working through the HSE and many good people contributing widely across all the services throughout the country. I visit many of them. We cannot paint everybody with the one brush.

The central purpose of the Bill is to establish a board governance structure for the HSE and this is, of course, in line with the view of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare. By way of further background, the Minister for Health in fact raised the issue of current governance arrangements for the HSE during his appearance before the committee in March 2017 and indicated his intention to review arrangements, subject to the committee's final report. As Deputies know, an independent board for the HSE was subsequently recommended by the committee and is an action for delivery under the Sláintecare implementation plan. I am glad to hear Deputy Dr. Harty talk about Sláintecare. It is an amazing document which was put together by all Members of this House. I hope it will continue to be a document that everybody can support.

Yesterday, the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, on behalf of the Minister for Health, underlined the importance Ministers place on the re-establishment of the HSE board and the opportunity it provides to strengthen governance and oversight of the HSE. To follow on from what Deputy Connolly said, at the time when I was a councillor and was on the boards of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, ERHA, and the Eastern Health Board before that, I was always in awe of the work done by the members of those committees, including public representatives and people working in the health service. In general there was real openness and transparency whereby we were able to go into a meeting and ask questions and come out with answers. I found great satisfaction in that. Maybe we need to look again at approaching it in a different manner like that.

I again underline the important role for the board in strengthening collective decision-making. As the Minister for Health has indicated, the establishment of a board for the HSE is the first step on a journey of reform in our health services towards a shared version of a health service that provides the right care at the right place to patients. Sláintecare gives the blueprint for this. Reflecting on what has been said in the debate, I emphasise the importance of this report around Sláintecare and the importance of the role of the new board. I look forward to our continued work together on the Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2018 as a crucial step on this journey of transformation of our health services. On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris, who cannot be here, I stress that we all have a duty of care to work on behalf of all our citizens. In some of the contributions it is very clear that the public representatives in this Chamber are singing from the same hymn sheet. A strong board can make a great difference to Sláintecare and to how we go forward with our health services. I thank Members, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Ceann Comhairle for the work that has been done in allowing the Bill to be brought to the House.

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