Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I wish to mention something positive that perhaps is not known. This year Ashoka's Change Nation came to Ireland. It involved 50 innovators bringing solutions we need to help our country. One of them is Dr. Sanjeev Arora, a consultant in New Mexico. He found the greatest problem facing his people was waiting lists, such as we have here. People were waiting up to eight months to see him and they were getting sicker and dying. Through a method called ECHO and teleconferencing with his GPs he has reduced his waiting list to three weeks. He is upskilling his GPs to become super specialists within a year. The good news is that I have linked this person with the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, who is in consultation with him and we will establish a pilot scheme here. Consultants and GPs are willing to do it. This is about an investment in education and technology to improve health outcomes.

Will the Leader asked the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, to attend the House in the autumn to discuss an urgent issue? The IMF report issued today is very broad ranging on systemic change it seeks in medical cards, social welfare rates and child benefit. It also states it would like property tax to be at a suitably high level. We must reflect very carefully on this. More than 50% of the people in the country have no disposable income after they pay their bills. Many of them have very high mortgages and we must be careful to mind our people.