John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the changes he will introduce to assist Members to obtain information through the parliamentary question system from the Health Service Executive in a more timely manner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6317/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Responding to the information needs of the Oireachtas and the public is a priority for my Department and is a regular agenda item at meetings between the Secretary General of my Department and the Chief Executive Officer of the Health Service Executive. The Health Service Executive is a statutory body with its own vote and Accounting Officer.

As the Deputy is aware, Parliamentary Questions raised in relation to day to day operational matters concerning the health service are referred to the HSE for direct reply to Deputies. This is in line with the commitment under the Programme for Government that it shall be a statutory duty on any body established under statute, to submit to the same Parliamentary Question regime as applies to Government Departments. This will involve a liability to provide answers to written questions within a specified number of Dail sitting days.

The operation of the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the HSE (PAD) allows for the centralised receipt, assignment and tracking of Parliamentary Questions within the HSE's extensive network of operations. More generally, PAD monitors overall performance in relation to the timely issue of replies and provides a central contact for all requests from Oireachtas members for information relating to matters within the statutory remit of the Executive. It reports on a regular basis to the Chief Executive Officer and his management team.

The Executive is very conscious of the need for prompt replies to Parliamentary Questions and there is regular liaison between my Department and the Executive in this regard. While the Executive attempts to answer all questions referred to it as quickly as possible, many of the questions submitted by Deputies request large and detailed amounts of statistical data on a variety of subjects which require input and coordination from all areas of the Executive.

Recently, the HSE has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve response times to Parliamentary Questions and to deal with other queries from members of the Oireachtas including:

the development of a new I.T. system to streamline and improve the process of responding to Parliamentary Questions. The new system is expected to go live within the next few weeks;

the provision of additional resources to reduce backlogs in key areas;

the nomination of regional coordinators for each HSE region to deal with Parliamentary Affairs for that area;

the development of a dedicated web page on the HSE website for Oireachtas members. This page, titled "Rialtas", will link Oireachtas members to a range of information on the HSE website including published reports, statistical data and responses to Parliamentary Questions;

the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) has also established a dedicated page on the HSE website. This web page, which can be accessed at www.medicalcard.ie, provides assistance in a range of areas for both Oireachtas members and their constituents including:

detailed guidelines on the criteria for eligibility for medical cards;

a facility to make a medical card application online;

a facility to check on the status of a current application, or the status of an existing medical card.

The Programme for Government contains a number of proposals to improve the handling of Parliamentary Questions, Adjournment Debates etc. It is expected that these initiatives will be progressed across all Government Departments in due course.