John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate which is important for the health services, its reform and funding. When Mary Harney was Minister, I suggested when I was on the Government side of the House that we should put the broad thrust of reform of the health services beyond politics — not political debate — to allow the Minister to get as much traction as she or he needed to bring about the large reforms required then. Even on this side of the House now, I still suggest that is the sensible way to approach health service reform. One cannot expect Ministers to firefight the system every single day and complicate their job while expecting them to get the best value for money and reform. All Members should strive to ensure some leeway in how we deal with the health services to allow Ministers the scope to follow a particular line of reform or policy.

Those on the other side of the House can blame us for creating the Health Service Executive, which we accept. It was, however, never completed, is poor in its administration and information on health services must be extracted and dragged kicking and screaming from it. The manner in which it responds to parliamentary questions gives a clear indication of its total disregard and disrespect for politicians and our job of representing people. Responses can take up to months. When one eventually gets one, it is usually out of date and inaccurate.

Will the Minister of State insist HSE replies to parliamentary questions are answered correctly, comprehensively, accurately and in a timely fashion? Otherwise, Members representing the public cannot complete their parliamentary duties as we would like. Such a move would be a fundamental shift in focusing on the importance of this Parliament versus what is happening in the HSE.

The HSE's governance and control of human resources in administration leaves much to be desired. Until recently it was claimed over 2,000 HSE managers were not even sure of their own job descriptions. I understand from the last meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts that some of these managers have retired or been given a different job. Why was the administrative system, which costs so much to run, allowed to carry staff that were surplus to requirement when cuts mean those barely over the medical card limits do not qualify for them or others cannot get into hospital? Why was this allowed to drag on for over ten years?

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