The Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, joined Pat Kenny in studio to discuss a number of issues in relation to his brief.

From the HIQA report on Portlaoise hospital to the latest on Irish Water, Minister Varadkar:

On Catholic priests' group not taking stance on referendum:

"I think it was very encouraging that even within the Catholic Church, within the clergy, there's a diversity of opinions.

"The indication I got from that was that there will be some priests who are voting yes. One thing that was very heartening for me was the number of letters and cards I got from nuns in particular who were very supportive and very understanding.

"I think you're going to see a diversity of opinion in relation to this."

On Irish Water:

"I think Alan's right.

"You know, we have got to the point now where the vast majority of people have actually registered with Irish Water. If you look at the opinion polls, more people are willing to pay than aren't willing to pay."

"Most people accept that water charges are a good idea.

"It wouldn't be fair to allow some people to choose not to pay if they can afford to do so, it wouldn't be fair on the majority of people."

On Health funding:

"I think there's two issues. I think we don't spend enough and it's not well organised. It's actually very hard to do country-by country comparisons on health spending. I've looked at them a lot. They're very misleading.

"It varies widely from country to country.

"In Ireland, social care for the elderly and disability come under health spending. In the NHS, it's not covered by the NHS, it's covered by local authorities."

On that HIQA report:

"It is a draft report. It's not a draft report that I've seen yet.

"The draft report hasn't yet been put to the board of HIQA. Like any draft report, on any matter, it needs to be fact checked and that's the process that's now underway. I do expect to see it in a couple of weeks and it will be published.

"The draft report casts the net very wide, not just making findings against senior management in HSE at national level but also front line staff at local level.

"The HSE would take the view that it has to defend the reputation and good name of its staff on the frontline.

"I don't want to see government agencies suing each other. I think it's not appropriate, it's a waste of money.

"I haven't seen the report yet so I'm not going to come down on any side until I have."

On structural changes and reforms:

"That actually is a problem in our health service. A lot of this goes back, ten, twelve years ago. The HSE, it was very evident it was never really set up."

"I want to put patients first and patients safety first."

On doctors leaving Ireland to work abroad:

"I'm the son of a doctor who migrated here from India. There's nothing new about doctors going overseas, it's actually a good thing quite frankly.

"We need to make sure medicine is attractive enough that they come home. They're not coming home in sufficient numbers at the moment."

On doctors switching jobs between hospitals:

"HSE never really happened. It's still an amalgam of old health boards and voluntary hospitals. 

"A lot of this kind of joined up reforms that were supposed to happen when the HSE happened never really happened."

On health insurance:

"I think that it's important to look at the bigger picture here. What we're trying to do before we make health insurance universal is to make it affordable.

"I know there are people who cannot afford health insurance at the moment and they're not going to be compelled, at least not at this stage, to take out health insurance."

On his plans before the General Election:

"There's a few things that I'd really like to get done. Certainly, the first steps to universal health care.

"I really want to get late discharges down. 750 people in hospitals who don't need to be. I think we can get that fair deal waiting list down significantly, that in itself will free up beds which will help us to reduce number of people on trolleys.

"I obviously want to bring the public health bill on alcohol... calorie posting on menus and also we're going to do the first healthy Ireland survey.

"We need to get those long term things right, we're never going to get on top of health if we don't improve public health.

" And then the planning application for new children's hospital."