Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Money is not the only answer but it is part of the answer because without money, this is not going to move. Next year, I have allocated a total of €350 million. The Deputy will be aware that I am appointing a ministerial task force to look at this issue. We are taking the learnings from the very successful vaccine task force and bringing them to bear. As the Deputy quite rightly said, we are going to do this differently. We are going to use all of the capacity we can, first of all within the HSE but then also within the private sector. That €350 million is a lot of money and can do a lot of good. I could not agree with the Deputy more. It is not enough. Using that kind of money can be effective in terms of dealing with the backlog but we must bring the day-to-day capacity of our public health system up to a point where it can meet the day-to-day demand. Only then can we seriously talk about universal healthcare and exactly the kind of reforms about which the Deputy spoke and that are needed, including the cataracts model in Sligo.

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