Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

That is a scandalous, cowardly reply which does not answer the question. The Taoiseach spent a week, as did the people representing him, including the HSE, casting blame around everywhere else, including the people marching on the streets. Now it is the 120,000 people working in the health service and by side-of-the-mouth implication, it is certain consultants or medical professionals who somehow are not coming up to the mark that are causing the problem. That was not the question I asked. The question I asked was a political question. The buck stops somewhere. Where does it stop? In my view, it stops with the Government. In the view of the respected medical professionals who have spoken over the course of the past 24 hours about what is happening in our health service, the buck ultimately stops with the Taoiseach, his Government and the Minister for Health and Children because they have political responsibility.

The Taoiseach is a great man to come in here and cast aspersions on people who are working in the health service. The one thing that he did not do was own up and stand up for the responsibility that he and his Government has. How much longer does the Taoiseach want to make our health service right? He has now served a probationary period of over ten years and it is in a mess. Over 50% of the people in a survey last week said it is worse now than when the Taoiseach started. It is worse now than when Deputy Harney took office.

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