David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend and extend the Health Act 2004 and for that purpose to provide for the conferral of additional functions on the Minister for Health in relation to setting of priorities and performance targets by that Minister in relation to maximum waiting times for health and personal social services; to amend the National Treatment Purchase Fund Board (Establishment) Order 2004 to provide for additional reporting, revised corporate governance and accountability arrangements; and to provide for related matters.

This important Bill will ensure we have greater transparency in relation to health waiting lists. As the Minister of State knows, the National Treatment Purchase Fund publishes on the third Friday of every month acute hospital waiting lists and some diagnostic waiting lists. However, the NTPF does not publish the waiting lists in many other areas of healthcare, including community care, diagnostics and mental health. Not only do we not publish those lists, but we do not know how long people are waiting in many other parts of the healthcare system or how many are on the lists because we do not compile them and there is no data. At an Oireachtas health committee session a number of months ago, I asked the Minister for Health and the head of the HSE for the total number of patients across all health waiting lists.

The Minister said he had not been given an answer yet because in some areas, data is not collected.

What I want to see - this is provided for in the Bill - is much greater transparency. The first thing we have to do is empower the Minister and the NTPF to publish all waiting lists. There is no reason why Oireachtas Members should have to table parliamentary questions every month to get updates on community waiting lists, mental health waiting lists or waiting lists relating to disability services. If they are HSE- or health-related waiting lists, they should all be published, as should the acute hospital waiting lists. That is the first thing the Bill does.

Second, the Bill provides for much greater accountability and transparency in relation to setting targets, as well as how we achieve the targets that are set. As we know, the NTPF is not accountable to the Dáil. Oireachtas committees cannot bring it in for questioning. That makes no sense. I hope to be Minister for Health at some point. That may or may not happen. If I were to be Minister, I would not be afraid of accountability or transparency. If I was Minister for Health, I would have no problem with the NTPF coming in and answering hard questions about the management of waiting lists, just like we have to do, because that is its statutory responsibility. The Bill provides for an accounting mechanism that would lead to matters being referred back to the Dáil, the Seanad and the Oireachtas health committee.

For all those reasons, we have tabled this Bill. Its purpose is to ensure that all waiting lists are published, that there are greater levels of transparency and that the NTPF can be properly accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas and their committees.

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