Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Does the Minister not feel she should hang her head in shame? The news is worse than what was published in the papers. In 2006, €114 million of the capital fund was unspent and that is truly shocking. We have just heard about dialysis patients in Limerick who are unable to access dialysis at a reasonable time of day and there are similar needs across the country. Does the Minister accept responsibility for this? Against the best advice of her Secretary General and officials she decided that the HSE would be the Accounting Officer when it was established.

Year after year there has been underspending and a failure to deliver, even though the capital fund is anything but generous. Will the Minister for Health and Children accept responsibility for this? Rather than suggest the HSE will set up yet another Department with yet another highly paid director, which seems to be regarded as the solution to everything, will the Minister indicate to us how the funding will be spent for purposes we in this House determined it should be spent? There should be close evaluation because even the Comptroller and Auditor General was unable to assess accurately how money was diverted towards information technology projects within the HSE, with an overspend in that regard.

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