Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister. I find the motion before us laughable given the history of the Members opposite whose party when in government was quick to run from having responsibility for the Department of Health. It offered that responsibility to Mary Harney, the previous Minister, as if it was the Sam Maguire or Liam MacCarthy Cup and happily ran to the backbenches and the plinth every time there was a problem in health. In the motion before us there is no proposal for reform. There is no single proposal - not one line - in it on how we as a nation can run our health service. The 14 years in government were lost on the Members of the Fianna Fáil Party opposite.

It is important that we consider this motion in current context. I advise Deputy Kelleher that we would all love to have a pot of gold but when it comes to health the reality is that we had a 14-year boom and bloom during which all that was done was that buildings were put up and inordinate amounts of money were spent on double jobbing and creating multiple layers of posts, the effect of which led to many departures from the health service under the retirement scheme in February. That showed that the Croke Park agreement worked quite well. That is a testimony to the staff in the health service who work hard and they and we have found that we have a Minister who is focused on reform. The clinical programmes are delivering, be it in the case of day-care admission rates, more day-care patients being treated or in the reconfiguration process. We have seen clinical leadership in the health service under the Minister, assisted by the Ministers of State, Deputies Shortall and Lynch. During the past ten months we have seen increased flexibility and productivity, an increased innovative way of doing business and a reform agenda being pursued. I want to pay tribute to the members who work in the health sector who have done this and who do not just see what they do as job. I want that put on the record.

There are different competing interests. As an interested observer, I note that those interests often do not work in the same direction. They seem to be in conflict. We as legislators, those who work in the health service, commentators and members of the pubic must accept that we must have a patient-centred approach and focus to what we do in the health sector. That requires that the competing interests step back and analyse what is best for our health sector. We spend close to €13 billion annually on health. That in an inordinate and extraordinary amount of money. Money is not the answer to problems in our health services. It is time those conflicting and vested interests were taken on. The Minister has shown in his 18 months in power that he is a man willing to embark on reform, willing to take on the challenge of change and willing to embark on a different model of health service delivery. We must take on the vested interests because we cannot go back to the same people all the time.

Part of the reform agenda must be in the area of primary care. We must change the mindset and attitude of the gnáth duine, the ordinary person, with regard to the accident and emergency department being the only place to go when one needs medical treatment. It is not.

This is like being on an oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean - it takes a while to turn it around. I am confident we will do that, but it requires patience, innovation and a plan, all of which the Minister and the Government have.

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