Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

In thousands of cases arrangements have been made for building works to go ahead but they have not proceeded. Deputy Hayes exposed the complete abdication of responsibility for special needs and autism by the Minister for Education and Science. The other day Deputy Quinn, in a devastating contribution, showed how the Minister for Education and Science could not answer how many prefabricated school buildings there are in 2008. Children having to go to school in converted toilets is not good enough.

The Minister for Health and Children, sitting beside the Taoiseach, is presiding over an absolute crisis in the health service which gets worse day by day. Maybe the Taoiseach is getting out in time. I do not know the full details of what will happen in the next three months.

In this final bout of Leaders' Questions with the Taoiseach, maybe he has regrets and things he wants to say. When he looks back at the unprecedented economic boom we have had, does he regret setting up the Health Service Executive in the way it was? As a person with empathy and compassion for people, I know the Taoiseach did not want to see how the executive has turned out. The way the executive was set up by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance — who has turned a €4 billion Exchequer surplus into a €6 billion deficit — and the Minister for Health and Children, it was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of health reform and service delivery. Does the Taoiseach regret the manner in which it was set up? I know he has commented on other matters that, from his point of view, were not appropriate. Does he believe appointing a chief executive, a team and then amalgamating all the health boards was the way to go about this? Had he an opportunity, would he change that direction and base it on a different structure in the interest of patient care and safety and service delivery?

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