Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I do not think anyone should point the finger at staff. What Covid- 19 has demonstrated is how universal public healthcare can be delivered from the point of view of access for everybody to public healthcare, to vaccinations, to PCR testing, to GPs and to hospital care. That is not in question here. However, that Covid care is a model for how Sláintecare has to be implemented. Covid-19 was pushed by Government and politically driven. We had an advisory group, NPHET, and we had staff willing and able to put themselves upfront to deliver on those services. That is we have to see in Sláintecare but we have not seen that.

The Tánaiste said that the money was put in, and it was €1.2 billion in 2019 or 2020, but Sláintecare specifically states €600 million a year, starting in 2018, and that it must be in the Taoiseach's office to deliver it politically. That is where we are lacking, but we do not really know because we have not been able to find out why Laura Magahy or Tom Keane resigned. I know the Minister is meeting Laura Magahy. Are the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach going to meet these people to find out what went wrong and then implement what they need to drive the programme forward? We will not get two better people to do this and it is a shame they are gone.

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