Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. In terms of general principles, it is in everybody's interests that clear accountability be established in health policy. We have all suffered from a lack of definition in the transfer of responsibilities from Parliament to the Health Service Executive. I recall a paper delivered by former EU Commissioner with responsibility for health, Mr. David Byrne, to the Law Society in University College Dublin, in which he discussed the issue of the transfer of responsibilities. Mr. Byrne suggested that democracy and the Constitution required a clear policy envelope on the occasion of the transfer of powers, for which accountability resides in Parliament, to the Health Service Executive.

While it is not my intention to knock people who have been trying their best, the performance of the HSE in delivering accountability in health policy has been insufficient. Professor Drumm recently offered to meet parliamentarians to discuss how the executive could be more accountable. The 8.30 a.m. meetings in the audiovisual room are regarded by all those who attend them as a complete waste of time.

See this speech in context