Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Fine Gael is in favour of giving this Bill a second hearing and will support it. We think it has much merit. For example, openly advertising positions for State boards is a good idea with much merit. Recent experience with other bodies has shown surprising people with fantastic skills coming forward to offer their services to the State free of charge. That is worthwhile and such events will open up a gamut of people with experience and skills who can be of benefit.

People would need to have the required skills for the boards and an independent assessment would be required. There should be a procedure for any of the appointments, and this is an aspect of the Bill which should be added to with relevant sections. We must consider who will be ultimately responsible for any of these measures. A body or person should be accountable to this House.

In this context we feel strongly that there must be ministerial responsibility. We can consider what has been done as a State over the past number of years. Over a long number of years, we as politicians have given away our responsibility. For example, there is the case of the National Roads Authority. There was a time when the Minister was responsible for deciding the allocations for specific roads, the roads that needed to be worked on etc. The Minister now hands over a bunch of money to the NRA and it decides where it is to be spent. If the Minister is asked a question about spending of NRA money, he or she will state the Minister has no responsibility in the area.

When it comes to cutting tape on a particular road, the Minister would suddenly have responsibility and be the one who delivered all the goodies. A Minister cannot have it both ways and we as politicians should not be handing away responsibility. We should be answerable to the people. A section of the Bill would make the Minister ultimately responsible but the context of the Bill implies he or she may not be. I am concerned about that.

To continue on the trend of giving away our responsibility, we can consider the shambles we have created with the HSE. If a question is put down to the Minister about an issue in the health service across the country we get back an anodyne response stating it is not the responsibility of the Minister. The matter is passed on to the HSE, which answers in due course. A letter might be received in three to ten weeks.

Some of the matters are urgent. For example, in Tullamore a brand new hospital is being built but they are knocking down part of it already. Did the Minister of State know that? It is in his constituency.

See this speech in context