Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I also welcome the contribution made by the Minister of State, Deputy Shortall and welcome her colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to the House. The Department of Health is not the prettiest to be assigned to. I wish to put on the record my admiration for those people who serve in the health services, HSE or Department of health, be that in a political, administrative, departmental, front line, nursing, domestic or other capacity. It is probably the most stressful place to work from a political or service delivery point of view.

There is no doubt but that Deputy John Browne is correct. There is a lot wrong with our health service. However, I take issue with him and with Deputies Cowen and Kelleher on one issue. The problems in the health services in Ireland did not commence last February 12 months. They have been around for a long time. Despite 40 minutes of uninterrupted contributions from the Opposition benches they did not offer a single solution, which says a great deal about where Fianna Fáil as a political party is placing itself on its road to redemption. All they did was crib and moan. I know that Fianna Fáil is in a race to the bottom with the political party sitting to its right. However, as a party trying to restructure itself on the political landscape in Ireland it should, rather than continually whinging from the sideline take some responsibility for what it did to the health services, admit it was wrong and be supportive of Government which is trying to fix the problem.

I wish to raise two issues with the Minister of State. I am glad both Ministers of State are in the House because this issue is relevant to both. The first issue relates to young adults with an intellectual disability who have been receiving letters during the past couple of days in regard to whether they have school places going forward. I am sure every Member of this House has received representations on this issue in the recent past. I was visited at my clinic last Saturday by parents of a child with an intellectual disability who are concerned about who will care for her when they are gone. I urge and implore the Ministers of State and Minister to engage with the voluntary bodies charged with providing services for young intellectually challenged adults to ensure there are places for them when the school year recommences next September.

I have previously stated in this House when speaking on education issues that I believe now is the time for this country to engage in a new model of social partnership. By this I mean not the model of social partnership that involves calling people in late at night to Government Buildings and asking them how much of the cake they want but the model of calling in all of the stakeholders, be they nurses, domestic staff, parents, service providers in the voluntary sector, HSE or Department of Health officials, and informing them of the amount which has been voted through by the Oireachtas for the next year for, say, education, health, defence or justice and asking them how they propose to spend it, what they see as the priorities in their area and, more important, the areas where potential savings could be made. I agree with the Minister of State that we cannot continue with business as usual. We have a depleting budget going forward. I implore officials in the Department of Health, together with their colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills and the voluntary service providers, to sit down together over the next six weeks to ensure young intellectually challenged adults of 18 years are not discharged from school, leaving their parents, many of whom are elderly, wondering who will look after them when they are gone. I compliment all of the work already done in this area. The brother of one Deputy once referred to the Department of Health as "Angola", on which I would probably agree with him. I applaud anybody who is trying to deliver real change in the health services, including the nurses at the side of the bed or the Ministers of State present this evening. Their hearts are in the right place and I compliment them on the work they have done. However, I urge them to engage, for God's sake, with the service providers and stakeholders at all levels of the health service in order to achieve better value.

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