Vol. 566 No. 1
545 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Health and Children the amount of money spent by his Department in each of the RAPID areas since the inception of the RAPID programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12389/03]
Government policy is that the RAPID programme is to be funded through the prioritisation of the identified areas and the front-loading to them of a significant share of the funding allocated under the national development plan. Agencies have been asked to implement the programme from within their existing resources.
Officials from my Department have written to the RAPID co-ordinators and to the chief executive officers of the relevant health boards/ authority to request that they prioritise the list of projects for their board, paying particular attention to the top five priorities; consider re-prioritisation that could be made on the basis of RAPID-type projects from their funding allocation and which could be implemented within existing resources; and include as many prioritised RAPID proposals as possible in their service plans.
An internal group comprising representatives of relevant units within the Department of Health and Children has been established to ensure co-ordination with health board counterparts in service areas for which RAPID proposals have been submitted.
As the information from spending within agencies' existing resources specifically on the RAPID programme is not readily available in the Department, I have asked each health board-authority to provide the information directly to the Deputy.
