Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 June 2026
870. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether her Department, or the HSE, intends to develop a comparative performance framework or dashboard to monitor differences between the six health regions in respect of expenditure, workforce allocation, waiting times, service delivery outcomes and operational decision-making; and if not, how she is assured that significant regional variation is being identified and addressed. [45094/26]
View answerThe Government is committed to an ongoing programme of healthcare reform under Sláintecare, which aims to improve the delivery of healthcare services in Ireland by enhancing access to high-quality care, reducing waiting times, and lowering the costs faced by patients in accessing services. This reform is supported through sustained leadership at multiple levels and is underpinned by robust frameworks for performance, accountability and implementation, as well as analytical oversight and monitoring tools, including regular reporting and data visualisation dashboards that provide national, regional and service-level insights into health system performance.
From an operational and governance perspective, the primary performance framework in place is the HSE National Service Plan (NSP) (about.hse.ie/publications/hse-national-service-plan-2026/). The NSP sets out, on an annual basis, the services the HSE will deliver, how Government priorities and policies will be progressed, and the performance targets against which delivery is measured. Performance monitoring processes under the NSP are cascaded and aligned across the Health Regions, National Services and other HSE functions. This ensures a coherent view of performance across the system and provides appropriate checks and balances to assess how resources are delivering impact. My Department plays a central role in overseeing performance through ongoing engagement with the HSE in relation to NSP delivery. Reporting against NSP targets is published in the National Performance Report (about.hse.ie/publications/national-performance-report-november-2025/). This year, more detailed comparative data is being developed to support decision-making and accountability while enabling improvement actions at all levels of the system.
In relation to broader health system performance, including population health outcomes, workforce capacity, accessibility, cost to patients, and service delivery, the Health System Performance Assessment (HSPA) framework is a reliable framework that provides an overall view on the performance of Ireland’s Health system. While this framework is designed to provide performance assessment at an aggregate national level, it complements operational performance monitoring arrangements which offer regional breakdowns.
From a governance perspective, the HSE Performance and Accountability Framework (about.hse.ie/api/v2/download-file/file_based_publications/PAF_2025.pdf/) /] is in place to ensure that the HSE can deliver on its performance remit and that individual functions are held to account for their performance. Responsibility and accountability for the services provided within the six HSE Regions lies with the respective Regional Executive Officers (REOs). In addition, a range of nationally delivered services are overseen by the National Director for National Services and Schemes and the Chief Clinical Officer.
In terms of oversight and monitoring tools, both my Department and the HSE have made significant progress in recent years in leveraging administrative data to develop analytical dashboards aimed at improving transparency, supporting productivity, and enhancing patient care. One example is my Department’s publicly available productivity dashboard for hospitals (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-health/press-releases/minister-for-health-publishes-interactive-productivity-dashboard-for-all-hospitals/), which provides interactive visualisations across a range of areas, including:
• Demographics;
• Expenditure and workforce inputs;
• Hospital activity;
• Composite activity outputs;
• Productivity-enabling KPIs;
• Waiting lists; and
• Hospital administration analysis.
This dashboard supports cross-regional comparison and enables analysis of key inputs and outputs across the health system. It provides policymakers, researchers and the public with the ability to assess performance across Health Regions on a consistent and transparent basis. In addition, a range of other dashboards are used operationally within the health service to support ongoing monitoring, management and oversight across service areas.
