Tony Dempsey (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

Tá seanfhocal sa Ghaeilge a deir, "Is fearr an tsláinte ná an táinte", agus níl aon rud i saol an Rialtais nó i saol an ghnáthdhuine níos tábhachtaí ná sláinte an phobail agus na ndaoine. The English equivalent is "Health is wealth". The Irish version goes further in saying health is better than wealth. Most politicians subscribe to the latter because since joining this band of politicians here I notice that one's health is continually challenged. Therefore, health is very important. It is a core ambition of all politicians to improve the health of the nation. It has to be a core ambition and responsibility. To do that requires two approaches, namely investment and reforming how we deliver the services.

During the next 12 months the Government will invest €11 billion. The income tax take is approximately €7 billion. For every euro from income tax that is put into health we put another €4 with it. Some 25% of the Estimates as announced by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, goes to health, yet many are unhappy. There is the problem of those in my county, for example, having to use trolleys at weekends. The infrastructure in Wexford is such that the tourist population almost doubles the natural population. Obviously keeping pace with the social infrastructure and the number of tourists would be difficult because they make a huge demand on Wexford General Hospital. Even somebody from Mars would agree the Government is investing significantly.

The next step is reform. The challenge of reform which the Minister, Deputy Harney, and her Ministers of State, face is that of getting a balance between health administrators and health practitioners. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Harney, and her Ministers of State. She has a track record of confronting and winning challenges. I am certain she will win this significant challenge. I have no doubt the 19 beds we are waiting for in Wexford will be provided also.

The initiative of 200,000 medical cards which will enable people to visit doctors will relieve the accident and emergency units. I have do doubt, from my experience as a politician, that many people go directly to accident and emergency units, perhaps because they cannot afford the fees of general practitioners. The 30,000 traditional medical cards and the additional 200,000 is a wonderful initiative on which the Minister deserves to be congratulated. We must get a balance between administrators and health practitioners. We must also get a balance between the delivery of health services and the role of the public by way of politicians and the role of the professionals. That is what the Health Bill seeks to achieve.

The Minister said there is a need for clarity on roles and responsibilities. The Bill goes a long way towards identifying that clarity. For example, consultants will use 20% of hospital beds and 20% of hospital capacity to treat their private patients. We have to make certain that one is not disadvantaged by virtue of the fact that they do not have access to private medicine. That is one of the purposes of the Bill. It seeks an administration system that will deliver without the awful fragmentation that many different studies have identified.

The Health Service Executive will be a separate entity. From my experience as a new politician there were too many health boards. For example, in Great Britain, Birmingham has one board for approximately the same population. We had ten or even more health boards. One of the objectives of the Health Service Executive will be to reform how we deliver our services and to restructure. As a separate entity it will be able to call on the expertise of the various people who will be needed to help to achieve success. It can interact in a unitary way with the Department. It can demand that the Department sets out goals and policies that are clearly identifiable. There will not be one for the north west and one for the south east. It is time we got away from that so that we know what we are doing. I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Harney, the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, who is present, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and all those others who are involved in trying to address what successive Governments have failed to address.

I hope the Health Service Executive will demand of the Department that goals are set out and that the Department will demand of it that we get value for money, as the Government has invested money.

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