Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 28, line 41, after "code" where it secondly occurs to insert the following:

"and the Authority shall comply with the code or revised code as so approved".

With regard to amendment No. 20 there is a serious issue that is not being addressed by the Minister with regard to conflict of interest. I am surprised at this when I consider what the Minister said on Committee Stage. A very serious situation arose in regard to the HSE. A special adviser was brought in by the chief executive officer of the HSE who had been connected with a company that was involved in developing primary care centres. He subsequently left his role as adviser on primary care strategy prematurely and is now on the board of directors of the same company, that is, a commercial company interested in making profits out of the primary care provision. In the same way, we have various bodies being established and new inputs into the health service, particularly from private for profit companies, but we do not have robust regulation of standards when it comes to participation in what can be important and influential bodies. We have seen that in the HSE.

We are now establishing a new body at HIQA and the issue of conflict of interest has not been bolted down. The Minister accepted the criticisms I made on several occasions. I make this criticism not to get at an individual but because there have been shock waves through the health service, particularly among health professionals who are concerned at the new direction the Minister is taking without considering the dangers. When there is a great deal of money to be made from providing health care and determining the nature of the delivery of health care, there will be predatory practices. We do not have the protections or the experience of what is happening now, whether it is in co-located hospitals, the provision of primary care centres or issues related to the pharmacy sector, with which the Minister of State is very familiar. The Pharmacy Bill will be debated shortly and there are not protections in that Bill from these predatory forces. I have major concerns about that. Attention has been given to this issue on Committee Stage. I raised these concerns on Committee Stage and I felt I got a good hearing from the Minister but nothing is happening. That is a characteristic of this Minister for Health and Children. She makes all the right comments but then does something else or, more importantly, she does not do what must be done to provide the protection for the public good.

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