Large numbers of people continue to be denied access to timely healthcare, whether at hospital or community level. The recruitment and retention problems within the health service are now reaching crisis point. Sláintecare is an all-party strategy to address those kinds of deep structural problems and to bring about reform of the health service to bring it in line with best practice in Europe. We do not know where the Government stands on Sláintecare. The Taoiseach promised a Government response by last Christmas. He promised the establishment of an implementation office. He promised a lead executive would be recruited months ago. None of these things has happened. He promised legislation in this area and we still have not seen it. What is the Government's position on Sláintecare?

The implementation office has been established and we are in a position to appoint a lead executive for Sláintecare so we should be able to do that very shortly. In the next couple of weeks, the Minister will bring the implementation plan to Cabinet. While the Sláintecare report is very good and contains principles I agree with, it falls down in many areas. When one reads the sections on recruitment and retention, using public money efficiently and making sure the money actually gets to the patient, there is not an awful lot in it, which is why we needed to do so much work to bring it to implementation plan standard.