Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It now is patently clear that this is the most incompetent Government in the history of the State. On Sunday, the Minister for Health and Children announced she had approved and authorised a statutory service plan from the HSE involving cuts of €500 million. That plan was placed in the Oireachtas Library yesterday and is obsolete today. My understanding is the Health Service Executive prepared its service plan and submitted it to the Minister for Health and Children for authorisation.

However, in light of changing circumstances, the chief executive of the HSE will be obliged to seek a further €400 million in cuts. This will strike at the heart of the most vulnerable in our society as it pertains to a critical major public service plan. The Minister for Health and Children, who sat at the Cabinet table and heard of the changing economic circumstances from the Minister for Finance, should have been in a position to tell the HSE it was basing its service plan on the wrong figures, in the same way the budget was drafted using incorrect figures. Arising from the service plan submitted by the HSE that now must be amended, can the Taoiseach explain to the House the numbers of beds that will be cut and the number of people who will be made redundant? Can he spell out the impact on waiting lists and trolleys, 400 of which were occupied yesterday, as well as on capital projects for hospitals nationwide next year?

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