Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House to take this issue. It is very topical, given the threatened industrial action in the mid-west region.

Earlier this year, the Minister addressed the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO. He clearly and concisely outlined his vision of the importance of nurses in the delivery of front line services in health. He also said he was conscious of the importance of working together and of listening to nurses and those who provide front line services. In view of what is happening in the mid-west and of the concerns expressed in Beaumont Hospital and University Hospital Galway, it is evident from his inaction that the Minister is not listening to the nurses or to representatives of those providing front line services, who are expressing grave concern about overcrowding in accident and emergency departments and patient safety.

As I looked at Deputy Reilly's website and at old press releases dating from his time as Fine Gael spokesperson on health, I got tired of reading press releases headed "Reilly slams". Reilly was continually slamming the Minister and the HSE. He was doing nothing but slamming at that time. He has now been Minister for six months. I am a fair and reasonable person, but the Minister's only major press release, PR or media hype in that time was about the sacking of the board of the HSE. He subsequently stated that he was assuming personal control of policy and budgetary parameters. Now the HSE is consistently being fingered as being responsible for budgets and for the management of hospitals. There is a disconnect and a failure of the management chain between the Department of Health, through the Minister, and the HSE. It is evident that his proposals, made with wild abandon, to abolish the HSE and set up new management structures is not working.

The Labour Relations Commission, LRC, has offered to intervene tomorrow in the industrial action in the mid-west. The front line service providers, to whom the Minister said he would listen, are clearly stating that patient safety is at risk. They say shortcuts will be taken and there is a major concern about accident and emergency services in the mid-west and in University Hospital Galway. The closure of the accident and emergency department in Roscommon is putting added pressure on other accident and emergency departments.

I do not mind a volte-face or a U-turn, but the Minister is embracing reconfiguration with the zeal and enthusiasm of a latter-day convert. Every day, he is driving this reconfiguration, sometimes without discussion with local communities. This is evidenced by the comments of Deputy McCarthy about the reconfiguration of ambulance services in west Cork.

It is time the Minister took a hands-on approach. He must not wash his hands of this issue. He should roll up his sleeves and get involved, as he said he would do, in ensuring a proper chain of management from the Department of Health, through the Minister who would be accountable to the House, to the HSE.

I am also disturbed by the Government's lack of urgency in dealing with health issues. The Minister established a Cabinet sub-committee on health which has never met. It is six months since the Government came into being but the Cabinet sub-committee on health has never met.

The Minister must be honest about the commitments he has made. His policies are not working on the ground and patients' lives are being put at risk.

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