Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

How could we spend an hour and a half debating this matter last night and tonight without pointing out that the Minister created the HSE? It is now out of control and it is hard to believe the Minister, the Secretary General of her Department, the head of the HSE and the head of the hospitals sector could not get information from the very body she created.

The Minister cannot walk away from responsibility for this matter. I am not here to check Deputy Harney's credibility because that has been done nine or ten times in her constituency of Dublin Mid-West. I am here to seek accountability from her regarding something she created and no longer wants to recognise. She has the audacity to call for a bipartisan approach at this stage. Given the structure she created, the purpose of which was to shove responsibility as far as possible from the Department so that her own responsibility would be reduced, it is unthinkable that she now seeks to put her arms around the Opposition. There is no doubt in my mind that the Minister is responsible for what has happened, through the creation of the HSE. She should resign on that point alone.

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