Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

I am happy to acknowledge some of the achievements in health that are listed at the beginning of the Fianna Fáil motion. However, I cannot help but raise an eyebrow at some of the other content of the motion, one part of which calls for the Government to immediately put in place proper governance structures for the HSE. Has Fianna Fáil forgotten it was only recently in government and it was during this time in government that the HSE, in its present dysfunctional form, was established? While the former Minister for Health and Children, Ms Mary Harney, normally got the blame for the HSE, it was the current leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Martin, who was responsible for its creation and for the failure to put in place the proper governance structures the HSE does not have today.

As Deputies opposite are aware, the Government intends to bring a bill to the House this session that will provide for governance of the HSE. That Bill will deal with the maladministration and, to be frank, the incompetence of the last Government.

The line in the motion that condemns the Government for the €750 million in cuts is enough to raise both eyebrows. Have the current Fianna Fáil Deputies forgotten it was the late Minister for Finance, Mr. Brian Lenihan, who signed the memorandum of understanding with the European Commission, Article 21 of which commits the State to correct its budget by €15 billion and to balance its budget by 2014? Members of the current Fianna Fáil front bench bear culpability for the collective Cabinet responsibility in regard to the decisions that were made at that juncture.

These cuts in health and in other areas of society are Fianna Fáil cuts necessitated by agreements that were made as a consequence of the reckless management of the public finances during its time in office. While the Ahern Government took the easy option of simply throwing money at the issue without proper regard for the duty of prudence with State finances, this Government is determined to seek the best possible value for money in the interest of the taxpayer.

Taking the area of mental health as an example, under the comprehensive policy of the framework laid down in A Vision for Change, care in the community is one of the leading values of the principles of mental health policy. As with many other areas in the State, the main providers of care in community are charitable and voluntary organisations which receive funding from the State. For example, I understand there are 69 separate such organisations in the State providing residential care for persons with intellectual disability. These organisations provided a valuable and necessary service. Each one of them, I understand, has a human resource function, a finance function, a payroll function, a vehicle fleet function and a public relations function. The challenge for the Government at this time is to get more with less and to ensure effective resourcing of the organisations which provide important services to citizens. There is no need for these organisations to get involved in a turf war. The objective must be to provide shared and amalgamated services which provide a better outcome for clients and service users.

We can simply no longer afford to spend, as Bertie Ahern and the Fianna Fáil Party did, without any regard for the prudence of public finances. Of the €110 million adjustment being sought under the Health Service Executive western area service plan, €85 million is accounted for in pay adjustments and improvements in efficiencies. This is the pattern being repeated across the State in a reflection of a return to the virtue of proper management of the finances of our State. This comes after 14 years in which there was an absence of any prudential approach to public expenditure under the Government of which Deputy Kelleher was a member.

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