To ask the Minister for Health and Children when Health Service Executive related parliamentary question responses will be available online; and if she will make a statement on the matter. David Stanton T.D.
REPLY.
Responding to the information needs of the Oireachtas and the public is a priority for my Department and is a regular agenda item at meetings between myself and the Chief Executive Officer of the Health Service Executive.
The provision of replies to Parliamentary Questions on the HSE website is one of a number of measures the Executive has taken as part of an ongoing process of meeting its obligations with regard to accountability and transparency. Access to responses issued by the HSE in respect of Parliamentary Questions referred to the Executive for direct reply was available on the HSE’s old website. My Department has been informed by the Executive that there was a slight delay in the planned transfer of its responses to Parliamentary Questions to its new website. However my Department has been informed that this problem has been resolved, that the HSE’s responses to Parliamentary Questions will continue to be available on the Executive’s new website and can be accessed via a quicklink function.