Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a little bit of time to respond. Unfortunately the word "spin" does not fit as well into the name of the Deputy's party but he gave it a fairly good go there. I genuinely get a little bit upset when somebody suggests that anyone is being hypocritical praising healthcare staff. No political grouping owns them. They are all our families, friends, members of our communities and constituents and we are all very grateful for what they do.

It is possible to create a universal healthcare system like the NHS and still live in a country where there is private healthcare and that is what we are trying to do here. We are not trying to ban private healthcare but create a universal healthcare system. I am committed to it, and I signed up to Sláintecare. I do not know if the Deputy's party did, and I do not mean that in a smart way. We have signed up to Sláintecare. If the Deputy looks at the draft programme for Government, it mentions hiring a thousand hospital consultants who can only carry out public work. Paying them a decent salary but having them do only public work is how to create a public health service. Other ways to create a public health service is to have a statutory home care scheme and elective hospitals to drive down waiting lists. We are going to deliver Sláintecare and to accelerate it but we will debate that another time. We are going to hire a significant number of additional staff, and the Deputy will have heard Mr. Paul Reid's comments today about broadening the number of training schemes. As I said, we have a once in a generation chance to keep these people in Ireland.

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