Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

This is the real problem. Unfortunately, what we read in today's newspapers was a symptom of it. I was the chairman of the former East Coast Area Health Board when it told the then Minister, Deputy Martin, that doing away with public scrutiny and public accountability through the public representative membership of the board structure was a recipe for disaster. We cited the disastrous example of the old Blood Transfusion Service Board as a typical case, in that there was no one to keep an eye on the ship. That is what has occurred in this instance.

Nine years ago, the friends of the patients benefit fund wanted a new physio unit at Wicklow hospital and was able to invest £90,000 raised by the local community as well as £120,000 from the health board. This was value for money. Today if, for example, the damp will cost such an amount to fix, no one is working with the benefit fund to raise more money in the community. Instead, the HSE wants to close it. The HSE's real reasons for its decision are that 23 beds have been made available in the other hospital in Rathdrum, it wants to get rid of agency staff instead of employing more nurses and it wants to consolidate. Bray hospital is gone and Wicklow hospital is going. Next is Rathdrum.

We have also been told that there is no demand for public beds because, under the fair deal, people are choosing private nursing homes. That is nonsense. That 270,000 bed days have been lost because of delayed discharges does not square with that argument. I respectfully ask the Government to not allow the HSE to mislead or fool us. It should put more nurses on the front line and save the money spent on people going abroad. These are unaccountable and faceless people on a board that holds its meetings in camera. The former East Coast Area Health Board and every other board held all of their meetings in public, yet we are facing this situation. We are the country's legislators, yet we do not know what is happening with the largest public spending budget. The Department of Health and Children comprises 400 people. They are wholly policy makers.

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