Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

A clear majority of the people, including many of those who voted for candidates who are now in Government, rejected the approach to health services being taken by the Minister, Deputy Harney. If the Taoiseach really wanted a new approach in health, that is a ministerial change he could and should have made. He has conveyed the impression of being a tough guy at the helm but he was not very tough on this. She beat him. She is in the Department of Health and Children not because he believes she is the best person to do the job but because she has politically insisted that is where she is staying. The Taoiseach will have to take direct responsibility for that decision because all the controversies that have arisen in the health services in the past year are slaps in the face for Rebecca O'Malley, the late Suzie Long and all the people who looked to him to make a real change in health. He has made the decision to leave the Department in the hands of a Minister who does not see health as a community service but as a business opportunity.

The Labour Party will provide strong opposition to his Government. We will remind him daily of the problems people face in this country and we will raise issues of poverty and the nearly 200,000 children who are living in poverty. We will insist that however he or the Minister for Finance wields the knife as the economic situation tightens, it will not affect those who are least able to bear it, namely, those who are homeless and poor and, in many cases, lack the lobbies of better-off people.

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