Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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907. To ask the Minister for Health the full-year cost of providing universal primary care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36624/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government approved the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy in July 2018, which provides the framework within which a system-wide reform programme will be advanced. It sets out four overarching goals and ten high-level strategic actions which will be the key focus for the first three years of the reform programme.

Key actions in the first three years of reform in primary/community care include the development of a plan for the organisation and operation of community-based services based on population need and size. At this stage, it is not possible to definitively calculate the cost of universal primary care given the wide range of services, including nursing, multiple therapies, homecare packages and many others which are encompassed under primary care services. Such a calculation would require a complex and detailed modelling exercise to account for a range of demographic changes and future projections of service demands.