Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Tánaiste first told us we would have the report on 1 March. Subsequently, she announced she would take the report last Friday and it would be brought to Government and published today. Will the Taoiseach name one other Parliament in the European Union where on a matter in which the taxpayer is exposed for somewhere between €500 million and €2 billion, depending on which account one believes, a Minister would organise a press conference outside the Houses of Parliament to announce the details of the relevant report?

However, the Taoiseach is trying to make a virtue out of the fact that accountability should take place in this House. He is fully aware that if the Tánaiste were to go ahead and publish this report today as she committed to doing by way of press conference, at least the leaders of the Opposition would have the opportunity to question him in this House tomorrow morning. The Taoiseach is evading scrutiny by managing to defer the publication so that we cannot discuss the report until he goes missing for five weeks.

Are the rumours in the press about the sacking of officials justified? I do not know whether they are warranted because I have not read the report, unlike the Taoiseach who has had it since Friday. He spoke of reading the report in seven or eight hours. One would read War and Peace in that time. Does no culpability attach to serving Ministers who attended the meeting of the management advisory committee, MAC, on 16 December 2003 where legal advice was presented to them by the South Eastern Health Board to the effect that these charges were illegal? The Supreme Court stated clearly that the introduction of the universal health card in 2001 had the effect "of placing beyond doubt any question of the legality of charging for the relevant services". The court's ruling further stated there was "no possible room for doubt" and that any charge imposed on such a person was "indisputably imposed in direct contravention of the law".

How could there have been any doubt in the minds of Ministers who were given legal advice and convened a meeting of MAC to discuss that advice? The Minister who claimed to be absent would have received the minutes of that meeting. The Taoiseach is obliged to tell the House whether the rumoured sackings relate to officials only or whether serving Ministers attract the culpability associated with their neglect of the supervision that is reasonably expected of a Minister.

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