Departmental Management Structures

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2016

Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Questions (115)

Martin Ferris

Question:

115. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 28 of 2 June 2016, if the research being undertaken by the new policy, strategy and integration unit established within his Department 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's work to that person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20938/16]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The all-party Committee on the Future of Healthcare, which is a key commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government, held its inaugural meeting on 23 June.

The resourcing of the Committee and how it discharges its functions are a matter for the Committee and the Houses of the Oireachtas Services. Senior officials in my Department have met with the Committee and my Department will continue to provide assistance and advice to the Committee, as appropriate. As part of that commitment, 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 both the Joint Committee on Health and the Committee on the Future of Healthcare.