Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

What of the Deputy's throw-away remarks on universal insurance, which would cost €1 billion? She has now acknowledged that it could not be implemented in the lifetime of a single Government and Fine Gael has run away from that idea. At least Deputy Howlin delivered a health strategy in 1994. The deputy leader of his party has not delivered any policy on health since 2002.

I am confident that we are making major progress in health reform. We have ended the incoherence of the health boards, though many of the problems and legacies of the plethora of bureaucracy that was our health board structure are still with us, as we have seen recently. We now have the HSE in place, which has its accountability clearly defined in legislation. The CEO of that organisation is not just the accounting officer but is also responsible, on a day to day basis, for the management of our health services. It is a sea change in health management which will make an enormous difference.

The Opposition voted against the establishment of the HSE and Deputy McManus, earlier this year, called on me to postpone its introduction.

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