Greater funding for health services will only be allocated if reform can be achieved, the Tanaiste and Minster for Health, Ms Harney said in response to criticism today after a new report showed Ireland has one of the worst health systems in the developed world.
The ESRI study published today found that in a comparison of health systems in 22 OECD countries in Ireland was last and second last in two of three categories. It also found that Ireland spent less on healthcare than every other country surveyed.
Facing criticism in Dáil this evening from Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny, Ms Harney said it was her ambition to improve health services but that "serious reform" would also be required.
Mr Kenny criticised the Government's failure to significantly improve the health service despite spending €44 billion in the past eight years. "The ESRI report suggests that the achievements have been almost negligible and are certainly nothing to boast about," he said.
Ms Harney acknowledged there were difficulties in the health service but warned she had "no magic wand". She would "accompany additional resources with radical reform", she said.
Money alone would not solve the problems she said, addiing that the National Treatment Purchase Fund may be extended to address waiting lists.
"I want to continue to fund and support the fund, perhaps by extending its remit, because it is having a major impact through the use of facilities in the independent sector in Ireland and elsewhere to treat patients who have been waiting a long time," she said.
The Opposition were also angered by the finding that while average visits to GPs were a mid-range 3.6 per year among the "old EU 15", a sharp fall in attendance was noted among those without medical card entitlement.