Dáil debates

Friday, 3 December 2021

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Health Services

10:30 am

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, it is not either-or. It is not revenue funding or the access to care fund. They are for different purposes. The revenue funding is to build up the permanent capacity in the system so we never see waiting lists like this again. While we are doing that, the access to care fund is used to ensure that the people who are currently waiting are seen. Cappagh Kids and the National Orthopaedic Hospital at Cappagh have submitted several applications under the access to care fund. They are using it. They received just over €1.5 million this year and they have more proposals in. They have submitted a proposal for around €2.6 million for next year. The access to care fund is not just for private care; in fact, the majority of it goes to the HSE. Indeed, approximately two thirds of the NTPF money also gets spent in the HSE and one third in private provision.

On the important question asked by the Deputy, all of the applications under revenue funding, including those submitted by the National Orthopaedic Hospital at Cappagh and Cappagh Kids, are being looked at very seriously. Indeed, there is more than the €9 million funding provided. We have told the HSE that there is funding available for critical care, diagnostics and capital proposals. What we need to do is to ensure that those proposals are assessed quickly and are acted on. Other capital proposals have been submitted, for example by the Crumlin and Temple Street children's hospitals, that we are looking to push along. I will share the details of them at another time.

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