Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I agree with much of the sentiment behind the motion and understand the emotion being expressed on this side of the House. Even if one looks at the health service and the Health Service Executive in a very forensic way, one cannot justify what is happening. Looking at the figures in a cold, calculating way shows that the behaviour of those involved is unacceptable. To anybody who observes a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts at which representatives of the HSE are in attendance, it is clear that they are simply putting out fire after fire. On every question one asks, every flank on which one attacks or criticises, they are vulnerable and wrong.

The Health Service Executive is flawed, rotten, inefficient and politicised. It is incapable of managing the problems with which it is presented and has not done so for many years. Successive Governments have also shown themselves to be completely incapable of dealing with the difficulties. The problems are absolutely manifest, but above all is the loss of faith by the public in the HSE. That loss of faith is a consequence of people's inability to access what they consider to be rightful and proper treatment because of the cuts that have been imposed. The reason for this is partly, like many semi-State organisations, the Health Service Executive has built an empire, the interest of which, in the end, is to defend and expand itself.

Anybody who has attended the meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts will have seen that the management has completely lost sight of its objective, purpose and mission, which is to look after the health of the patients of Ireland. That is not the focus of senior figures in the organisation. Instead they are focused on defending themselves and their patch. There is a great deal of evidence to indicate that this is the case, part of which is the raw figure that 16% of personnel in the HSE are administrative staff, while at the same time there is a shortage of front-line staff. An observation made by the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, when in opposition illustrates the reality of the situation:

The HSE are engaged in industrious futility, running around filling out very extensive reports that are terribly important in their own minds but which do not result in an iota of improvement in care or a single new service.

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