Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I join other speakers in calling for a debate on health. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, should come to the House to discuss a wide variety of issues which have arisen. Notwithstanding that the Ministers of State, Deputies Shortall and Lynch, have come to the House to discuss specific issues, the senior Minister must make himself available to Senators.

Media reports at the weekend indicated that the Health Service Executive overspent by €170 million to the end of May. This will place additional pressures on the exemptions to the moratorium on recruiting staff. As a result, specialist ambulance personnel may not be replaced, which would have major implications for the health service in the context of accident and emergency services being wound down or reconfigured nationwide. I would appreciate if the Leader could arrange such a debate as a matter of urgency.

I ask the Leader to make time available to have the Minister for Finance come before the House to discuss the implications of the summit of European leaders which will take place later in the week. It is interesting that the gravity of the situation is absent from many of the media reports on this issue. Not since the Second World War has Europe, in this case the Single Market and European Union, been under such threat. It is important that the House debate the issue as it could, in a small way, produce some solutions which could be listened to. It is evident that a coherent approach is absent in Europe. In the absence of debt forgiveness by the large European banks, whether French or German institutions, the only option will be quantitative easing on a massive scale. Essentially, this means printing money to try to inflate our way out of the current economic problems. This would complement the good work governments, including the Irish Government, are trying to do by introducing austerity measures. In our case, it will ensure the €18 billion deficit is reduced. The position is serious.

Under the previous Administration the House had a weekly opportunity to debate economic issues. While I accept the Order of Business afforded some opportunity in that regard, irrespective of whether the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, or another Minister comes before the House, we must have a specific debate focused on solutions rather than political point scoring. Given that next week is the final week of the session and the Dáil will rise this week, the Seanad should comment on developments that will take place later this week.