Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the Tánaiste on her appointment as Minister for Health and Children. Many within her own party have hailed the Tánaiste as some sort of Messiah come to resurrect the health service from complete disintegration. The Tánaiste is an experienced politician and I am sure the House wishes her well in her endeavours to restore a health service that the people deserve, but how can we be sure this is not just another false dawn?

If the Tánaiste wants any sobering reading in this regard, I recommend today's ESRI report which gives an independent snapshot of our health care system in the eighth year of this Government. In a comparison of 22 national health systems using three established performance indicators, Ireland came last and second last in two areas. Ireland had among the highest levels of alcohol consumption, is at the bottom of the league for childhood immunisations and is joint last with Japan in non-medical factors. Ireland ranked second last in health outcomes such as heart attack rates, cancer and suicide.

This country has the highest rates in the OECD of male and female mortality for heart attacks and is ranked "poor" for potential years of life lost due to female breast cancer. Ireland also ranked 14th out of 22 in the analysis of health status. We scored very poorly on infant mortality and our life expectancy figures from birth for both men and women was in the bottom one third of the countries surveyed. The Government is now in its eighth year and has spent €44 billion on the health service but the ESRI report suggests that the achievements have been almost negligible and are certainly nothing to boast about.

In the Tánaiste's analysis of her first week in office as Minister for Health and Children, can she give the House three targets she expects to achieve in the next 18 to 24 months? For instance, will the broken promise of the delivery of 200,000 medical cards be honoured? Will we see an end to waiting lists during her tenure of office and does she expect to end the chaos in accident and emergency units throughout the country? Will she give us three tangible targets by which we can set performance indicators?

See this speech in context