Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 July 2018
455. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the reason his Department is drawing up an implementation plan for Sláintecare when the Oireachtas Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare recommended that the new lead executive for the implementation office should be charged with this responsibility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32030/18]
View answerI intend to announce the appointment of the Sláintecare Lead Executive today.
I am conscious of the Committee's recommendations and of the importance of the Office having a significant input into the reform programme. As I have said publicly before, it is not my intention that this plan will be a static document and I am confident that the Programme Office will play a leading role in designing and implementing the programme in the years to come.
The successful delivery of the ambitious reform plans envisaged in the Sláintecare report will be a significant undertaking and needs to be translated into a detailed and phased programme of work to be delivered over a ten-year timeframe. In this regard, my Department has been progressing work on this in advance of the full establishment of a Sláintecare Programme Office to provide certainty on the overall vision and priority actions that will be taken in the coming years and to ensure momentum is maintained behind the reform programme. For that reason, its development was progressed alongside the recruitment of the Executive Director.
