Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reporting mechanism for any Minister and a board appointed by a Minister is through the chairman. I had no direct engagement with Mr. Quinn or any conversations with him. Obviously, I know Mr. Quinn having been a Minister of State in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in a past life. In terms of this project, any engagement I would have would be through the chairman to me or through the Secretary General to me. I cannot speak for the Minister for Finance, as I said to Deputy Jan O'Sullivan earlier. I do not have any knowledge of that but the Deputy could ask the Minister for Finance that question directly.

In terms of the impact on projects, the Deputy makes a very fair point. Of course if a project costs more money, that money has to be found somewhere but the answer is to be found in the summer economic statement. We took a decision to set aside additional resources so that no project would be delayed or cancelled. That was the rationale behind that decision to reserve €200 million for the broadband plan and the additional costs of the children's hospital. That provided certainty to the health service that allowed us to publish a plan with 250 health projects, of which the children's hospital is only one, albeit a large one. There are 249 other projects in the plan.

The Deputy asked why we did not launch the capital plan at the children's hospital which is in her constituency. She may be familiar with it but I found the question somewhat ironic given that the board of the hospital is fed up inviting members of the Oireachtas to come and visit the site. I know that the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health visited. Every member of that committee has been invited but most have decided not to go. I do not think any party leader has visited the site. If Members did visit, they would not be making ridiculous comments like those of Deputy Mattie McGrath, who referred to a black hole. If one visits, one can see the progress that is being made.

On private consultant rooms, I do not wish to scare Deputy Joan Collins but I agree with her on the matter of private practice in public hospitals. The contracts allow that at the moment. These are only rooms though and we must remember that. If we change the contracts and implement the De Buitléir report, which I hope we can do with cross-party support, then these rooms will simply convert to public rooms. They are just rooms. There is no mystery to the rooms. Consultants have a legal entitlement to their contracts but I would like to see those contracts changed and private practice taken out of all medicine. In fact, I cannot think of a worse area in which to see private practice than children's healthcare, where services are provided if a child's parents have the ability to pay for them. I will ask Children's Health Ireland to provide a factual and detailed answer to the Deputy on how this will be tracked so that the costs of laboratories and diagnostics are met. I do not have that information to hand but the intention is that the full costs of the private practice would be met through the consultant and, or the insurance company. I will get a detailed not on that for the Deputy.

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