Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

It is a privilege to stand here today and be nominated by the Taoiseach to serve in his Government. It will be the eighth time that I have been asked to serve in a Government since 1997. It is a privilege that I do not take lightly. It is one that I take seriously and I apply all my energy to the task in hand. I will deal in a moment with some of the issues that have been mentioned concerning health. First, however, at the time of the last general election in 2007, both the Fine Gael and Labour parties, like the Government parties, based their economic policies on the fact that Ireland would grow by between 4.5% and 5% during the upcoming period. There was no difference between either side on that matter. So it is wrong for Deputy Kenny to say that independent economic advice was not listened to. The fact is that the main parties in this House based their election manifestoes on a growth rate of that order.

In everything it is doing today, and has done over the past two years, the Government is seeking to return this country to economic growth. In many places both here and abroad, the Government is being saluted for the difficult and courageous decisions we are taking. We have stabilised the public finances and have substantially reduced the gap between our revenue base and spending, which has not been easy. We are seeking to fix the banks and make them fit for purpose so that they can begin lending again and provide working capital to business. None of this could or would be done by simply taking a populist approach, as is being suggested.

In the run up to the budget, both Opposition parties said they broadly agreed with the €4 billion of adjustments, but they opposed every single adjustment that was made. The current recession is very different from what we experienced 20 years ago. Today we have nearly 1 million more people at work. We are more innovative and better educated, while our industrial base is much more diversified. Twenty years ago, almost 30% of the economy was dependent on agriculture. Our markets are also more diversified now and we are less dependent on our neighbouring market in the UK. Geography is no longer the determinant of where Irish companies trade. Therefore, it is blatantly wrong for anyone to suggest that the situation we are in today - difficult and challenging as it is for all of us - is unprecedented. The hard task for Government is not to be deflected; it is to persist and bring clarity. In particular, the change in Departments and the machinery of Government, while not important in itself, has to happen in order to meet our strategic goals. Clearly they must change given the economic circumstances the country is confronting.

The Taoiseach has been referred to as cautious and I would say that is his character. He is not a soundbite person, although we hear a lot of soundbites from others. He is a person of substance. There are things that people might do if they wanted to be popular and take a short-term view. However, there are other, more difficult things that people do when they want to put the country first. History is always a good judge of people who put the country first, particularly in difficult economic circumstances.

I am happy to defend my record and that of the Government on health. The policies I pursue are not my personal ones, rather are the policies endorsed by the Government. Our health system has improved enormously in recent years. Twenty years ago, the then Minister for Health, Barry Desmond, spoke about the shroud passing over the Opposition. His successors today in the Labour Party seem to be suffering from the same illusion. The cancer control plan, which was all about delivering better, safer cancer services for patients, was opposed by both Opposition parties.

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