Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Deputy Frank Fahey, announced recently on radio that it takes 50 minutes to travel by bus from Mountjoy Square to St. Stephen's Green. He now intends to close down the whole of Dublin city centre to traffic without discussing it at the relevant committee.

The Taoiseach is a clever man. I assume he and the incoming Minister for Finance, will have no problem finding taxpayers' money to buy their way out of Ireland's Kyoto's targets and whatever emerges from the Bali talks. It is a case of the Taoiseach's problems but our money.

I again congratulate Deputy Brian Cowen on his appointment as Taoiseach and wish him well in the job. However, we must get real. His record in the ministries held to date does not indicate a sense of endeavour, drive or the sense for change of which he spoke earlier. There is no trace of achievement when he was in the Departments of Labour or of Transport, Energy and Communications. Neither is there a trace of achievement when he was Minister for Health and Children. A former master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street described the Taoiseach as hopeless when he was in the Department of Health and Children. It was all just talk, promises and publicity. Ten years ago, he told The Irish Times he was driving fundamental restructuring in health services. Ten years later, it still has not happened. Deputy Brian Cowen moved on before his failures could be nailed to him in that Department.

Deputy Mary Harney should not be reappointed Minister for Health and Children. She has lost the confidence of the people. She also seems to have lost the drive and energy that made her a formidable politician in the House and on the national stage for many years. I agree with her argument for networks but how can one have them when hospitals services are stripped away? A woman recently wrote to me asking what is the policy for those with long-term, terminal and non-glamour illnesses, the aged, those with a mental illness or those suffering from neurological conditions. She asked if it were policy that they should be considered no-hopers and — like alcoholics, the homeless, drug addicts — they are nothing but an underclass to be locked away. That is why a change in the Minister for Health and Children is needed.

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