Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The question I asked was for the Taoiseach. I am prepared to wait until the Minister comes in to make a statement. My question to the Taoiseach was whether he believes there is a conflict of interest and a contradiction if a Minister who has a private health investment is closing public health beds. This was my question to the Taoiseach and he avoided it. However, explicit in his answer is that he agrees there is no conflict of interest because he stated the Minister in question made it clear before he was appointed as a Minister, so the Taoiseach knew this, and therefore he thinks there is no problem whatsoever with one of the most senior Ministers, and deputy leader of his party, dealing with issues which affect every citizen in the State. We know the health services are in a mess for all sorts of reasons, some of them legacy issues visited upon us by Fianna Fáil, but there is still a core ideological position in both parties of privatisation of the health service. In his answer to my question, the Taoiseach accepted it is proper for a Minister to have a private investment element in his private wealth and also to be closing public nursing beds. This is shameful.

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