John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, the Minister of State and the various officials. I hope this is not the joint committee's last meeting with the Minister in his current job, because he has been a reforming Minister with a radical agenda. He was, however, dealt a lousy hand on assuming office given the economic context at that time and the ferocious pressure the Government was under from extra-jurisdictional sources to implement a single agenda in health care - namely, cost reduction. I am not happy with the reports I am hearing as I fear the Department of Health will move from being a vehicle for radical change to becoming a branch office of the Fine Gael directorate of elections as it seeks to have someone appointed Minister who will maximise the chances of Deputies in marginal constituencies being re-elected. That is not the way to run a country. I fear we will have a major dose of the same old technically inexpert Ministers being led around by the nose by members of the Beyoncé-and-Jay Z-style entourage of bureau-rappers and spin doctors who come in here on a regular basis.