Hospital Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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David Cullinane (SF), Waterford

I acknowledge all that work. Data is important in this area because it allows us all to hold hospitals and consultants to account and to ensure that the terms of the contracts that people have entered are being honoured. As the Minister knows, the Oireachtas health committee met recently and had witnesses in from the Rotunda hospital, the Department and the HSE. I have been asking questions for the last number of weeks. I asked the Minister parliamentary questions, which were answered by officials or by whom the information was gathered, about private activity in public hospitals and seeking a breakdown on the level of that activity. I am not getting any answers. The same answer comes back which simply has the number of consultants on type B contracts, as opposed to activity. I also asked the Rotunda about whether it can provide data about those consultants on type B contracts who are going beyond the 20%. The hospital said it was not happening or that it had no evidence that it was happening, and that the Department was collecting data on it. However, there does not seem to be information or, if there is, it was not shared with members of the health committee and, by extension, the public. I am asking what information the Minister may have that we do not have.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09