Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the Deputy over the success of the first A Vision for Change document. It was probably one of the most ambitious documents launched in healthcare in modern times. Its success or otherwise can be debated, but it has transformed mental health care. It was an extraordinarily ambitious document published at a time when the country was awash with resources. The country entered into recession during that ten-year period and many challenges arose in implementing some of the ambitions. It may have been overly ambitious, but notwithstanding that it has had incredible achievements to its name over that ten-year period. If Sláintecare, which is also an ambitious ten-year plan, achieves half the success of A Vision for Change we can look forward to enormous successes in healthcare.

I recently met the oversight group for the new vision document. The group is concluding its work. I think it will be a very interesting and welcome document. The costings will not form part of that review; they will be considered by Government on an ongoing basis because some of them will be cross-departmental and cross-sectoral as we go along the way.

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