Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

The HSE was established to bring reform to the health services — that is not to say it brought reform to the Government. Under the code of practice for State bodies, which the Tánaiste has outlined, the HSE has fulfilled its part. It gave the Tánaiste the service plan, which was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. When was the service plan placed on the website of the Department of Health and Children? It was extremely difficult to get copies of the plan for someone who was not a Member of the Houses or who did not know a Member of the Houses.

Why does the service plan contain no targets? We have no idea how many home-help hours or home care packages are expected to be delivered in 2006. We do not know what will happen in primary care. The service plan gives no figures and I would like to know what is happening in this regard. How does the board of the HSE monitor what is happening in its organisation if it is following a service plan without clear targets? An un-audited financial statement based on the service plan must also be published at some stage by the HSE board. I would like to know the figures from which it is working. I have serious concern with the transparency of what is happening in the HSE. The Tánaiste should speed up the process of placing these plans in the public domain and she should also review the plan. It is very poor on targets, facts and figures that people can use to see if the HSE is an addition to the health services or just a fob. We need greater accountability in what the HSE is doing.

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