Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We cannot get ahead of ourselves. A draft programme for Government has been agreed by three political parties and has to go through a process. If a Government is formed its members will be held to account by the House in terms of the implementation of the programme and questions arising from it. The Deputy still raises a fair point on the need not to return to the old way. Every time I meet anybody from the health sector, be it from a union, management or anybody else, I know they, like everybody else in the country, wants to go back to a degree of business as usual. In the health service we cannot do that. Some good learning has come out of Covid-19, despite it being a very difficult and traumatic time for our country. People are working together in a new and different way. Stakeholders are being engaged with in a better way. I meet disability organisations which say they have never had so much contact and engagement.

More capacity is required, and we can debate the programme for Government's commitments on that another day. The future will also be about doing things differently, and I will give the Deputy an example. Almost 50% of outpatient appointment clinics in the month of April were done virtually. The Deputy and I had a virtual Zoom meeting the other day about an important issue. The use of technology means that more can be done through the use of teamworking. There will be reform coupled with capacity. As I said to Deputy Pringle in the House last week, this will require investment and there is no cheap or easy way of doing this.

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