Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I have the Deputy's list of questions. On the system of maladministration, there are and have been excellent officials in the Department of Health and Children. It is the one Department that is, as Mr. Travers says, distinguishable from any other Department in terms of its workload and pressures and the way it reacts to a variety of issues within always finite and determined financial constraints. That must be placed on the record. I accept that I was an active Minister who probably tested even more in terms of workload. During my tenure, the Department looked at a range of issues right across the board and at a fundamental reform programme of the system itself. The workload we gave the Department in terms of the health reform programme and Hanly, which were basically a complete revamp, was never appreciated externally, before we add on all the other issues that were dealt with.

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