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

We need, of course, to examine the reasons that those resignations took place. The Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has spoken directly to Laura Magahy and Professor Tom Keane. He has engaged directly with the Sláintecare implementation advisory council. He will, of course, go before the Oireachtas health committee. Yes, the Government is considering the structures that are in place and will consider the request for an extension of time by the implementation advisory council in that context. If there is a requirement to strengthen the governance structures and the arrangements we have in place for the delivery of Sláintecare, then of course we will do that. We are putting the money in place. There is absolutely no resistance within Government at a political level to delivering the reforms. This is what the people want. We have agreed, on an all-party basis, to implement it, and the Government is committed to doing so.

As another example and evidence of what we are doing, under our recent national recovery and resilience plan, we got support from the European Union in the form of €1 billion in funding, some of which will go towards a range of e-health projects, which is the future for health. We have seen the development and emergence of that over the course of the pandemic.

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