Paul McGrath
Question:11 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Health and Children when he plans to publish the new health strategy. [19390/01]
Other Questions. - Health Strategy.
Ruairí Quinn
Question:18 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Health and Children the decisions reached at the special Cabinet meeting held in Ballymascanlon to discuss the crisis in the health services; if his Department has received a recommendation that spending on health should increase from £5 billion to £7 billion annually; when the proposed health strategy will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19220/01]
Liam Burke
Question:30 Mr. L. Burke asked the Minister for Health and Children when the report of the national health strategy consultation forum will be published. [19363/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 18 and 30 together.
No formal decisions were taken at the Government meeting held in Ballymascanlon. The purpose of the meeting was to present an overview of the health services, which encompassed the historical background, the current status and projections into the future. The meeting also provided an opportunity for the Government to be updated on progress in developing the new health strategy. In this context, the costs of possible options in developing health services were outlined at the meeting.
My Department is working intensively on the preparation of the new health strategy. The overall approach to the strategy is being guided by a steering group comprising top management of the Department and chief executive officers of health boards. In addition, a project team with an experienced departmental and health board membership is responsible for co-ordinating the work and preparing a draft of the strategy. As I have previously outlined to the House, a participative approach is being adopted to the develop ment of the strategy. This includes an extensive consultation process with the public and all key stakeholders. The national consultative forum is meeting again on 10 and 11 July. Detailed drafting will then be finalised as quickly as possible and I will submit it to Government for approval before publication.
Does the Minister seriously expect the House to take him seriously in his fifth year in office, when, after little more than an eight week dash, he presents this Fianna Fáil election manifesto dressed up as a health strategy? Does he agree that it is more like a Hans Christian Andersen publication than anything that this House should be expected to take seriously? Why did the Government not publish its health strategy four years ago? In its fifth year in office it is now publishing its health strategy while the Opposition has long since published proposals for it. Why has the Minister waited until the fifth year in government, on the verge of an election, to present to the public what he purports to be a health strategy?
This is not an election manifesto. It is a health strategy drawn up after the widest consultation ever entered into in the field. That consultation has been with the general public, all those who work in the service and all other stakeholders. We have involved many different groups which have an interest in the development of our health services. The strategy will reflect their perspectives and inputs. In that respect, it will be a significant strategy based on a significant consultative process.
The first health strategy was published in 1994. It was put together by the Fianna Fáil-Labour Government with Deputy Howlin as Minister for Health and Children. It is timely to look at the perpetration of a new strategy as seven years have now elapsed.
It would have been timely four years ago.
That was only three years after 1994.
It is a three-card trick.
I do not think it is necessary to publish a strategy every time we change Government. God knows, we change Governments a lot in this country. Until the formation of the Government the average lifespan of a Government was three and a half years. We should have enough maturity in this House to have consistency in the application of policies where a strategy developed by all the interested parties is concerned. Since 1997 we have worked with the 1994 strategy and built on it in terms of the huge investment in capacity.
The Minister has no strategy. I want brief answers to three questions. Clearly the timeframe for implementation, set by the Minister, of July is now gone. Will he clarify what the deadlines for completing the health strategy are? Has there been any improvement in the disagreement between the Minister and the Minister for Finance over funding? Have they worked any way towards dealing with this? It has huge implications for the strategy.
I asked that the Joint Committee on Health and Children be briefed by departmental civil servants in the way the Cabinet was in County Louth. The Minister said that he would consider my request. Will he, please, state that it is possible for the committee to receive this briefing? It represents all parties and we are entitled to it.
Under the national development plan £602 million is to be allocated to the BMW region before 2006. It surprises me that the health strategy was not put in place prior to the publication of the plan.
I have given the background to the reason the health strategy is opportune at this time, given that seven years have elapsed since the first strategy. That is a reasonable timeframe, to develop it after three years would have been wrong.
The national development plan covers the period 2000-2006.
We have put in place a number of strategies that will form part of the overall strategy, such as the cardiovascular strategy.
Come on, Minister.
There are other Deputies who have asked questions. The process of consideration by the Cabinet of the presentation made by the Department at Ballymascanlon is still in train. As soon as the Cabinet has deliberated, it will brief Deputies.
General questions are concluded and we now move on to private notice questions to the Minister for Health and Children regarding vaccines administered to children in the 1970s. I will call on Deputies who tabled questions.
The Minister is not giving the information.
I do not have the material yet because I have been here for Question Time since 2.30 p.m. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Moffat, can secure the information to respond to the questions. If we can take one or two minutes before I—
On a point of order, how long will it take for the Minister to get the information?
I have been here since 2.30 p.m. and assumed it would be ready by now. I only got notification at 12.45 p.m. Originally I was denied it and then it was reviewed. I accepted that and presume people have been preparing the information since.
Could the Minister's officials tell us if it will be ready in five minutes or ten?
I hope it is ready now.
Can we keep asking questions?
Perhaps the Minister will check to see how long it will be and then we can decide about the business of the House.
On a point of order, I assume time is not being deducted as of now and that we will be given the time allotted.
No specific time is allotted for private notice questions.
The Mental Health Bill has to be dealt with before 4.50 p.m.
We will be out of here before then.
Is the Minister prepared for that?
I have done the groundwork.