We will move on. I call the representative from the Independents 4 Change group. Deputy Joan Collins has three minutes.

It recently came to light at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health that private facilities, with separate entrances, would be provided at the new maternity and children's hospitals. These hospitals are being built with State funding at a high cost. A key element of the Sláintecare reforms of the health service is the removal of private practice from the public health system. It seems that the provision of private facilities in these two new public hospitals flies in the face of this key element of Sláintecare, namely, the separation of private medicine from the public system.

Under the Sláintecare action plan announced late last year, a report was commissioned on the issue of separation of public and private care. The report was to be produced by a group headed by Dr. Donal de Buitléir. I understand that such a report has been with the Minister for Health and his officials for some weeks now. Will the Minister make the de Buitléir report, and any recommendations it contains, public and available for discussion in the Dáil where the Sláintecare proposals received widespread cross-party support? Will the Taoiseach give a commitment that no private medical facilities will be planned or provided at the new maternity and children's hospitals? At the very least, will he give a commitment that this House will have an opportunity to debate the issues in the report before any such facilities are provided?

As I understand it, it is not the case that there will be separate entrances. There will, however, be a private clinic as there are at present at Crumlin children's hospital and the national maternity hospital at Holles Street, not too far from here. That clinic comprises a number of rooms in the building where private patients can be seen by consultants. Even across the water, for example, the National Health Service, NHS, in Britain also has private clinics. The Great Ormond Street Hospital, the centrepiece NHS hospital, has a private clinic. That is a recognition that some patients have private health insurance and are willing to pay for a second opinion.

Taxpayers should not have to pay.

Those private clinics bring in additional revenue for hospitals. Approximately €700 million is brought into our public health service every year in fees paid to hospitals, and not to consultants, for private patients. The de Buitléir report will be published as soon as the Minister is ready to do so. The report refers to the implementation of the recommendation in Sláintecare to disentangle public and private medicine in our hospitals. The term "disentangle" is a very good one. This is not something that can be done quickly or overnight. It involves a fundamental change to the consultants' contracts, for a start. That will have to be negotiated and will take time. A very long period may be involved where we phase out all contracts and replace them with new ones and that will also take some time to achieve. It will also be necessary to find €700 million or €800 million to compensate our public hospitals for the loss of private income. We should never forget that. Private patients do not just pay private income to consultants; they also pay private income to public hospitals. That loss of €700 million would have to be replaced or public services would have to be cut back as a result. I do not think that anybody wants that

I asked the Taoiseach a simple question and I expected a simple answer. I only spent one and a half minutes asking my question so that the Taoiseach could not go off on a tangent. I asked a simple question. Will the Taoiseach make the de Buitléir report available to this House as soon as possible? I am referring to this week. The report has been in the hands of the Minister and the Department for the past number of weeks.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that no private facilities will be initiated or planned at the new maternity and national children's hospitals until the report is issued? We have to scrutinise it. We are talking about a national maternity hospital - a public hospital - and a national children's hospital into the future. The Government is going to allow a separate department with a waiting room, a reception area and access to facilities within the hospitals, including a public laboratory and diagnostic services. While we have not seen the review, the Sláintecare report explicitly states we want to remove private facilities from public facilities in that regard.

I ask the Leas-Cheann Comhairle to allow me to make one last point. When the review group was set up last October, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health on 3 October that the current mixed model was not the norm and was an outlier. He said: "Let me be clear, because sometimes I hear myself described by my opponents wrongly in this regard, I am in favour of the removal of private practice from public hospitals." Yet, at this very minute, Crumlin children's hospital is stating it is going to give consultants access to private rooms, private reception areas and access to public laboratories and diagnostics. It is absolutely wrong. There should be a public outcry about it.

To respond to the Deputy's question about the de Buitléir report, it cannot be published this week. The Minister for Health has the report which he has to bring to the Cabinet. Once it has considered it, it can be published thereafter. I cannot give a date today, but I have read it and there are no secrets in it.

We have not read it.

We will try to have it published as soon as we possibly can.

On the matter of private clinics in public hospitals, Crumlin children's hospital already has a private clinic-----

We are talking about Sláintecare.

-----as do the national maternity hospital, very many public hospitals-----

We are referring to a new hospital.

-----and NHS hospitals such as Great Ormond Street Hospital. They are private clinics that enable consultants to see private patients. It brings in extra revenue for the hospitals which they can then use to cross-subsidise public healthcare services.

It is all costing the taxpayer.

The de Buitléir report sets out how we might disentangle public and private practice in public hospitals as recommended by Sláintecare. The report points out very clearly that it is not something that can be done overnight. It would involve new contracts, changing contracts and new funding models. It would take quite some time to make it happen.

That is a pathetic response.