John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important legislation and appreciate the Tánaiste's attendance at the debate. The Tánaiste did not sell herself short in her introduction of the Bill. Words such as "historic" and "once in a generation event" tripped off her tongue. I am only surprised she did not use the words "ground breaking" to describe the legislation. She also claimed to be putting the patient first, a claim we have heard before. We heard it at the launch of the health strategy in 2001 when so many other promises were made. We were promised 200,000 more medical cards but all we got was an extra 30,000 courtesy of the Estimates. This is what the Government describes as "putting the patient first". We were promised 3,000 new beds but little has happened in this regard three years later. This is another element of the Government's policy to put the patient first. The Tánaiste should communicate this policy to those patients on trolleys and chairs in accident and emergency units as we speak.

The Tánaiste will tell us this is just the start of a brand new era in health care which will usher in a state-of-the-art, world-class health service, as she has described it. In order for it to happen, we must give it time. I do not buy that. This Bill represents yet another rebranding of the health service. More importantly, it represents a rebranding of the Government parties as caring, even socialist, and an attempt to buy time.

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