Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will remind the Deputies opposite of Fianna Fáil's record in health. It slashed the health budget. Its leader set up the HSE in a way that did not work. During the Celtic tiger years, it built loads of motorways and deserves credit for that, but it did not build any acute hospitals.

That is the record. We are now working constructively on an agreed way forward on Sláintecare, but we need to hear whether Fianna Fáil is in favour of things like the de Buitléir report on taking private practice out of public hospitals. I know Deputy O'Reilly is.

I have heard Deputy Donnelly talk a lot about consultants. He wants to pay them more. They have a legitimate point on pay parity, but Fianna Fáil wants them to work differently. Does Deputy Donnelly believe it is right that private practice is happening in University Hospital Limerick while public patients are waiting on trolleys? I do not; I believe it is absolutely unfair and I want to implement the recommendations of the de Buitléir report. I hope Fianna Fáil will work with me on that.

Deputy O'Reilly is correct that the 60 beds in University Hospital Limerick will not be open this winter and I am certainly not suggesting they will. They are under construction and will open in 2020. That is important. It takes time to build a hospital extension and we now have funding for that.

In the absence of projects like that being ready for this winter, we need to look at how we can shift care into the community and decongest some of the hospitals. When I was in University Hospital Limerick on an unannounced visit recently, staff talked about the need for more home care. I credit Fianna Fáil with engaging on this and providing for more home care in the budget. A significant amount of funding is available for extra home care packages and extra transitional care. This is the earliest in any year the HSE has had clarity on its winter funding. I will meet the emergency department task force today where I expect to get an update on the winter plan and on the position of the chief operations officer in the HSE to finalise those plans in the coming days.

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