Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I acknowledge Deputy Shortall's work on Sláintecare. I do not say this for any reason other than sincerity, but if I had put money on who would have been Minister for Health after the general election, I would have had her in contention and I am disappointed that we never had the opportunity to engage fully on the importance of Sláintecare. I welcome the fact that there is a commitment to accelerating it in the programme for Government. I was reading about this yesterday and my understanding is that it was always in the document, although another document had been uploaded. Acceleration is key. The Deputy will expect me to make this point, but I genuinely believe that many elements of Sláintecare are already funded. We can debate on another occasion when there is more time the matter of capital being a huge part of the electronic record, the GP contracts and the various capacity projects. Perhaps this is always the way with programmes for Government, and people may criticise that, but there are not very many areas of the programme for Government which have a commitment for additional funding and Sláintecare is one of them. I hope the Deputy will acknowledge some of the key reforms we have managed to get into the agreement.

We have different views on Sláintecare consultant contracts. That has been included, along with regional areas and elective hospitals.

The Deputy made the point in respect of the review of A Vision for Change in that it was key to have it published in advance of the new Government being formed. It has been published and there is a key implementation plan. The new Government will have to be held to that in terms of delivering on the actions outlined in it. As the Deputy also knows, the individual budgetary process decides every year how much money is allocated to each Department.

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