Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

In his reply to Deputy Kenny, the Taoiseach stated that the Minister of Health and Children believes the women of Portlaoise are at the centre of this issue. She has a rather unusual way of showing that. Yesterday she circulated a motion to be debated in the House tomorrow which welcomes the report and praises her. However, it makes no mention of the women in Portlaoise, whether the nine who were misdiagnosed with cancer, the 101 who were called back for mammograms, the 143 who were called back for scans, nor does it mention the conclusions drawn in the reports. Ms Doherty's report stated that the rate of misdiagnosis in Portlaoise was six times higher than the best diagnostic centres. Mr. Fitzgerald's report stated: "The decision making process was fragmented, with insufficient clarity about decisions, who was making them, why they were being made, or when they were signed off" and went on to identify systemic weaknesses of governance, management and communication. Mr. Fitzgerald described a dysfunctional organisation. That is the organisation — the HSE — this Government established to run the health service. That is the organisation for which the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and Children guillotined Dáil debate because they could not establish it quickly enough. It manifestly is not working.

The Taoiseach stated that issues have to be addressed, a review is to be conducted and the bureaucracy must be reduced. He has had 11 years to do that but we have ended up with a health service and a health organisation which are worse than what we previously had. Instead of speaking about reviews and issues to be addressed, I want to know what is going to be done. Let us start at the top. I agree with Deputy Kenny that we need a Health Service Executive which fulfils the five functions but we also need a Minister for Health and Children like Noel Browne, who had a passion and commitment to public health and saw curing and caring as a public service rather than viewing medicine as an opportunity for business.

These problems were brought to the attention of the then Minister, Deputy Martin, six years ago. Since the reports were published, what discussions has the Taoiseach had with that Minister or the current Minister, Deputy Harney, about them? Do these Ministers answer to him? Did he ask them to consider their positions? In most other countries, an appalling litany of mismanagement and bad leadership such as this would have only one response. What is the Government going to do about the HSE? It was reported this morning that the Government considered returning to some kind of regional structure but concluded, as it always does when faced with a difficult problem, that it would employ consultants. Is the HSE to be allowed continue in this dysfunctional manner, which according to Mr. Fitzgerald will inevitably lead to other people suffering the same fate as the women in Portlaoise?

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