Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

We are proud of this record and we can stand over the level of investment we have allocated to our health services. The question the Labour Party must ask is whether it is proud of what took place on their watch, or was it a case again of Labour wrestling with its conscience, with its conscience losing?

As for the Labour Party's criticism of our reform record, we have set out not just a challenging programme of reform of which the Hanly task force report is just one vital element, we are now set forth on implementing the most comprehensive reform programme in the recent history of Irish health care. As Deputy McManus is well aware, earlier this year the Government announced decisions regarding a new health services executive which will include a national hospital office, a primary and continuing care directorate and a shared services centre. Taken together, these structural reforms represent the biggest single national reorganisation of the health system since 1970.

See this speech in context