Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and look forward to his contribution on the motion tabled by our spokesperson on health, Deputy Billy Kelleher. I compliment Deputy Kelleher for tabling the motion because it provides all Members with an opportunity to set out our concerns about the issues involved.

I will not start by beating the standard drum of blaming the Minister for everything. He has taken on the difficult job of delivering a health service. It is a difficult job in every jurisdiction in the world. Due to its nature of being demand led, at times there is an insatiable appetite on the part of some to have certain things done that are not always possible. It would be better if Members of this House contained themselves to the facts rather than to some of the excited spin that circulates. However, that also falls on the Minister's shoulders and on those of the Government backbenchers. It does not help when some of them seek to suggest that there is an air of hypocrisy or cynicism on the part of this side of the House.

We faced this problem for a number of years, certainly from when I was first elected to this House in 2007. I accepted some very tough decisions on reconfiguration that were taken by the previous Government. I received little support from anybody in the Minister's party or from members of the Labour Party. They put together outrageous statements which they could not stand over now. I question the media in terms of them holding people to account. They will hold the Minister and members of the Front Bench on this side of the House to account. Sadly, the Minister is going through that in another forum at present which I consider to be outrageous and unnecessary. However, that is neither here nor there. The media hold people to account but they do not hold many members of the Minister's party to account, as they should be, for statements they made when in the Opposition prior to the election.

The core issue is the lack of honesty in the preparation of the budget. Other Members have spoken about this. I am not suggesting it was necessarily at the Minister's direction but, unfortunately, as the Minister he must stand over it. If claims were made by the Department in the preparation of the budget that set out a programme for the year, the issue is that the Minister is not in a position to give a clear statement that he can stand over it in a way that will ensure service will be maintained at its current level. I believe there is a lack of honesty in the programme for Government, in the Fine Gael general election manifesto and in the Labour Party's manifesto. There was a lack of honesty during the Minister's time in opposition and in the way in which he fanned the flames in an effort to create the impression among the public that it was just a matter of changing the personnel in Hawkins House and abolishing the board of the HSE. The impression was created that dreadful people, including members of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, or the former Government, had conspired with people within Hawkins House to foist some dreadful service on the people, yet the approach the current Government took when in opposition was to give the impression to the people that there was a simplified way and that one could proceed differently. The Government is now experiencing the harsh reality that I suspect the Minister, who has experience in the health service, well knew about. The Minister was a good advocate for the people he represented at the time in question.

I was taken by Deputy Buttimer's reference to vested interests. The Minister knows where the bones are buried in regard to dealing with the various vested interests. For the reasons outlined, I believe a very dishonest approach was taken during the last election campaign. The current Government knew the facts, set out its stall and alluded to a model in another European jurisdiction, the Danish model, about which we have heard very little since. It involves an exceptionally expensive method of providing a health service with universal health care. The Dutch model, unfortunately, has not been advanced at the rate expected.

The Minister abolished the HSE, accepted political responsibility and turned the clock back. Having done so, he must accept the personal responsibility this brings with it. We have seen the unsavoury letters between the Minister for Health and a Labour Party Minister. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and the Minister for Health sit around the same table, yet the former has to write to the latter. Perhaps that is how they operate. It is quite unedifying to see a Labour Party Minister lecture a Fine Gael Minister on the imposition of cutbacks, although this says more about the Labour Party than it does about the Minister for Health. It is good to see the Minister for Health fighting his corner to ensure the continued provision of appropriate funding. However, if the current overrun is to continue - the numbers are set out clearly - we will reach a figure of €500 million by the end of the year.

A couple of facts are clear. The Minister may not have had the benefit of hearing the Taoiseach on Leaders' Questions this morning. He made it very clear to the leader of my party that there would not be a supplementary budget. Sadly, the Minister is left following the desire of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, which involves imposing significant cutbacks to honour the dishonest Estimates created as part of the budget and meet the target for the end of the year. As others stated, this can mean only one thing, namely, that the level of service will have to be cut.

I have heard others say it is not a question of money. Of course, it is a question of money. Others have suggested that because there was a tripling or quadrupling of investment in the health service since 1997, money was somehow not a problem. They state that, in spite of investment, there are still problems in the health service. The reality is that the cost of delivering the service has increased, as has the cost of drugs. When Fianna Fáil left power, the service that was delivered, including at community level, was far better than it was in 1997. Using selective indicators, some suggest that the health service became worse between 1997 and 2011. The Minister knows that is not the truth.

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