Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform oversees public spending. We are trying to highlight the frustration of the public and of good people in the health services.

These are people who are doing good work in the HSE and in the Department. Our health system needs a particular focus. I know Mr. Moloney wants to be careful about how he answers questions. When he speaks about another Department or other senior civil servants he is going to be careful and I understand that. However, what the Deputy is getting at, and what I have tried to get at previously, is that we are pleading with his Department, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, as the body that oversees and watches where the money is going, as well as the value for money, to which the Deputy referred, that a particular focus is placed on this because we have doubled the budget and yet things have actually gotten worse. That is incredible. On any international comparison, we fail in relation to health. That is a pity.