Labour Leader Deputy Alan Kelly again seeks answers on private hospital deal

Labour Party Leader, Alan Kelly TD, has once again called on the Government to publish the deal they have made with private hospitals.

Deputy Kelly said:

“I have been repeatedly calling on the Government to publish the deal they have made with private hospitals for weeks now. Following my questioning in the Dáil last week, we finally got details from the Taoiseach outlining that the deal will cost approximately €150 million per month. What we don’t know is how long this deal is to be in place for, if there is a possibility to extend and what additional costs will be incurred to cover additional expenses by private consultants," he said.

Deputy Kelly, whose brother Declan, CEO of Teneo was an executive director of the global concert at the weekend ONe World Together at Home, added: “It’s all well and good to make a deal to take over the premises of private hospitals, but it’s not much good if you can’t come to a deal with the staff needed to keep these private hospitals going.

Labour Leader, Deputy Alan Kelly

“The level of secrecy around this deal is baffling at this stage. Why won’t the Government publish the deal? Is it because they over hyped the level of progress made on this to date?

“Transparency doesn’t go out the window because we are in the middle of a pandemic. The taxpayer deserve to know what exactly the estimated cost of temporarily nationalising our private hospitals is.

“The Government also needs to come clean on the impasse with private consultants. Ultimately it is our sick and vulnerable who will miss out if the State cannot get full use of private hospital facilities over the coming weeks.”