25/05/2016

All-Party Committee To Explore Single Vision For Health

An all-party committee is to be established to devise a cross-party agreement on a single long-term vision for health care, Minister for Health Simon Harris has announced.

In addition, the group will formulate the direction of health policy in Ireland.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Minister Harris said: "One of the key proposals in the Programme for Government is the establishment of an Oireachtas Committee to develop cross-party consensus on the future of the health service. I believe the health service would benefit enormously from a single unifying vision, that we can all get behind, and that can help to drive reform and development of the system over the next 10-years.

"I am pleased that, at its meeting this morning, the Government has agreed to move ahead quickly to establish this committee, and to get it up and running in the coming weeks.

"I have been in discussion with Deputies from across the House, and I believe that we have now arrived at a motion that can attract broad support in the Dáil, and which the government is backing. We will also allocate government time to debate the motion in the House.

"I hope to table this motion in the near future, and to start the debate about how we can develop a single unifying vision for the future of healthcare."

(MH/LM)

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