Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

That is absolutely fair enough, except that this will happen under this service plan. On new money, we have additional money for new drugs, for example, in the drugs budget. We have an additional 3,300 people, which at a cost of €90,000 is all new money. They are all people who can be allocated not just to people with cancer, but people who have cancer with other things. This is the new money and the new investment. The distribution of that, which is what the Deputy is asking for, will be apparent in the service plan, which we expect in the coming weeks, having sent the letter of determination. It is a completely reasonable question. There is a process to work that out, particularly in this year 1 of a change. There will still be funding for the strategy itself, which of course is different. It is about research, programming and strategy. That is slightly different from the delivery of services, which we all understand, and that will be apparent.

We have to get away from, in particular in the regions, the idea that you can only do something if you have a new person. I gave the example of the endoscopy suites in Bantry for the very reason that there is no point asking for new things at CUH when these exist at Bantry for the convenience of patients, who can get an endoscopy there instead of having to travel to CUH. It is the consultants who must go to the patients to make sure that diagnostic equipment is delivered and used in accordance with Sláintecare.

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