Health Care Policy

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2016

Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Questions (106)

Martin Kenny

Question:

106. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 106 of 2 June 2016, if the research being undertaken by his Department and the Economic and Social Research Institute three-year programme on health reform will be available to the new joint Oireachtas committee that has been established to develop cross-party consensus on the future of the health service over ten years, as per the programme for Government and Government approval; if he will make available the research undertaken to date to the committee; if he will designate a liaison officer within his Department in order that members of this committee may direct queries specific to the committee work to that person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20937/16]

Written answers

Minister for Health

I welcome the establishment of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare which is a key commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government.

The resourcing of the Committee and how it discharges its functions are matters for the Committee and the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. Senior officials from my Department have already met with the Committee and my Department will continue to assist and advise the Committee, as appropriate. As part of that commitment to provide support, my Department is currently making arrangements for the secondment of an Assistant Principal Officer - Health Sector Policy Analyst - to the Houses of the Oireachtas Service Committees' Secretariat to support the work of the Joint Committee on Health and the Committee on the Future of Healthcare.