James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

Let us look at the motion. The Members opposite want me to talk about what I may or may not have done. Since becoming Minister, we have assumed responsibility. Notwithstanding the Deputy's contention that we defer everything to the HSE, we do not. All operational matters are to be referred to the Department. We have formed a new relationship with the HSE which we will soon abolish. We have created an interim board, with direct interaction with the Department and me as Minister. We have instructed that parliamentary questions on operational matters be sent to us. The management system has been instructed to tell managers that they must take responsibility. We have told the managers of hospitals that they must keep to their budget and that if they do not, there will be consequences, and there have been. We have changed the board of Tallaght hospital, something the previous Government failed to do during its tenure when it was clear there was a problem with the board and in the workings of the hospital. We have also introduced new management systems to the hospitals in Limerick and Galway, both of which were in serious trouble and failing to meet their budgets. University College Hospital, Galway was the only hospital in the country that failed to adhere to the 12 month limit for inpatient procedure waiting times.

I will not go through the rest of the list of things we have achieved. We managed to maintain services throughout 2011, despite a cut of €1 billion. We cannot expect that there will be no impact as a result of the €750 million cut we must make this year, but we will minimise it and there will no linear effect as happened in the past, when every percentage reduction in spending led to a similar percentage reduction in activity.

Why has it become necessary to do this? The irresponsible behaviour of the previous Government caused the country to lose its economic sovereignty and brought the economy to its knees, while its Ministers, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, said that they had heard nothing or knew nothing.

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