Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of capital investment, as the Deputy is aware, in the current year we have a budget of €10.8 billion, which is the largest in the history of the State. Learning from the previous crisis and taking account of the different conditions at this time, we will protect the public capital programme. That is a really important commitment from Government to which I look forward to giving effect as part of the review of the national development plan.

On the issue of the Department of Health and the HSE, they have a budget in the overall Health Vote of €22 billion in the current year. While it is true to state that almost €2 billion of that is specifically for Covid, the key change in the context of the budget for 2021 is that we are now making the step-change towards investing in Sláintecare. Covid has underlined but not created the need for a permanent improvement in the capacity of the public health system. I want health budgeting to be very much performance-based. I want outputs. When I sat down last year with the Minister to negotiate the budget, I was very anxious to get specifics, such as the number of extra beds we would get in the acute hospital system, the number of extra critical care beds we would get and the staff we would recruit in the areas we identifiably have a deficit. For me, it is about outcomes and performance and I will certainly be adopting the same approach when it comes to negotiating health budgets in the future.

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