Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Taoiseach a simple question and I expected a simple answer. I only spent one and a half minutes asking my question so that the Taoiseach could not go off on a tangent. I asked a simple question. Will the Taoiseach make the de Buitléir report available to this House as soon as possible? I am referring to this week. The report has been in the hands of the Minister and the Department for the past number of weeks.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that no private facilities will be initiated or planned at the new maternity and national children's hospitals until the report is issued? We have to scrutinise it. We are talking about a national maternity hospital - a public hospital - and a national children's hospital into the future. The Government is going to allow a separate department with a waiting room, a reception area and access to facilities within the hospitals, including a public laboratory and diagnostic services. While we have not seen the review, the Sláintecare report explicitly states we want to remove private facilities from public facilities in that regard.

I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to allow me to make one last point. When the review group was set up last October, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health on 3 October that the current mixed model was not the norm and was an outlier. He said: "Let me be clear, because sometimes I hear myself described by my opponents wrongly in this regard, I am in favour of the removal of private practice from public hospitals." Yet, at this very minute, Crumlin Children's Hospital is stating it is going to give consultants access to private rooms, private reception areas and access to public laboratories and diagnostics. It is absolutely wrong. There should be a public outcry about it.

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