Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach and I feel strongly about this, not least, because we are former health Ministers and understand the problems facing health administration. We are both keen to use a decent chunk of the European recovery fund - we have approximately €800 million to €900 million coming to us - on e-health, to do some of what Deputy Shanahan suggested.

However, much has happened in our health service in terms of e-health that has worked well. Our patient record in maternity care is good. Something is starting in pediatrics. The medical laboratory information system, MedLIS, means people do not have to take the same blood test twice. Our radiology system is good, having moved from a picture archiving and communication system, PACS, to a national integrated medical imaging system, NIMIS. I would not like the impression being created that nothing has happened in this space, but it is true not enough has happened. I concur with the Deputy's view we must up our game and invest in e-health.

While people may have been scared by the experience of personnel, payroll and related systems, PPARS, the very expensive health service system which went horribly wrong ten to 15 years ago, we should not make the mistake of not investing in e-health when we need to.

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