No list of saleable sites, says Harney

MARY HARNEY is only starting an audit of surplus lands owned by health boards which can be sold on to raise funds, months after a PD colleague produced a specific list of sites apparently ready to go on the market.

Junior Health Minister Tim O’Malley said recently he had identified excess property around mental hospitals that could be sold off with the revenue ring-fenced for the mental health services.

Yet yesterday Ms Harney said there was no list of lands to be sold off in the Department of Health and she could not provide any guarantee that proceeds raised would only go to the mental health sector. She said funds from sales in the health area would go into the general health sector.

Also yesterday, the Tánaiste promised additional resources for the health service, allied to radical reforms.

Responding to questions from opposition leaders the Tánaiste said scope of the National Treatment Purchase Fund may be extended.

Her priorities in office are sorting out Accident and Emergency, reducing hospital waiting lists and raising the income threshold for medical cards, she said.

But the Tánaiste didn’t mention the promise in the Programme for Government to provide 200,000 extra medical cards.

“I can’t give a commitment in terms of numbers. I can in terms of income thresholds,” she said.

A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute ranked Ireland’s health service 21st out of 22 rich countries.

The ESRI study indicates the health of Irish people on average incomes is suffering because they are putting off visits to their family doctors because of the cost.