Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He refused media interviews, despite the fact that he was asked by numerous outlets on numerous occasions. He had the audacity to blame the Opposition for the fact that disabled people were protesting overnight three weeks ago. He said that his message was lost and that he found it impossible to communicate clearly that they would not lose the service because of the fog created. How could he do so because he only had one interview? In that, he decided to throw in the Croke Park agreement. After the week of negative publicity and more chaos, particularly from the Labour Party Chairman and others, the Minister met his Cabinet colleagues and was told to sort out the mess he had created. He then announced a U-turn and the Taoiseach congratulated him on his bravery. Then, the Minister did a "Prime Time" interview and denied that he had done a U-turn.

That weekend, one could not get onto local radio stations throughout the country because the Labour Party Members were queueing up to tell everyone what they would say to the Minister and how the cuts would be reversed. The same Labour Party Members will be tripping over themselves to vote for the Minister. There is a pattern of the Minister blaming everyone but himself. He has been in office for the past 18 months and has been very busy relabelling and announcing initiatives started by the previous Government. Last night, he spoke about irony but he had no scruples in blaming Deputy Micheál Martin, who left the Department eight years ago in 2004. I will say a little about the list of previous Ministers provided by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. He failed to mention his tenure when he set up tent in it and had to get out of it pretty quickly.

The Minister for Health also referred to being a GP and how he came to politics late. He did not elaborate on how steeped he was in medical politics in the IMO. There is nothing wrong with that but there is an irony in it when he speaks about delays in negotiations with the IPHA on drug costs and the consultants on the reimplementation of the 2008 contract, given that he presided over the most lucrative deal ever for GPs during his presidency of the IMO.

This ties in with his rallies around the country before the last election. Promises on Monaghan hospital were made by the Minister for nothing but blatant political gain. He knew full well that the promises could not be implemented. In addition to those broken promises, the Taoiseach made a promise on Roscommon hospital. He denied it until the tape was produced and he had to retract.

Last night, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, said Deputy Martin should crawl under a stone in the Burren because of what he had done to the country - another typical headline grabbing superficial account of a global and European economic crisis. He rarely speaks now of his past, be it in the Democratic Left or the Workers Party. We will not have any retrospective comments on that, of course.

The Minister for Health commented last night on how patients are always at the centre of the decisions he makes. Why then did he cut thousands of hours of home help, and why is his inaction on the budget to result in ward closures all over the country? These are facts that he will not be able to contradict or twist to his own advantage.

The Euro Health Consumer Index, EHCI, regularly assesses patient services across the Union. In 2005, it ranked Ireland, in terms of the quality of its health service, as 25th out of 26 European countries. However, four years later and following the introduction of the HSE, which was in 2005, Ireland was ranked 13th out of 33 countries. The body stated the creation of the Health Service Executive was obviously a much-needed reform.

It is ironic that, before the Minister’s time in this House or Fine Gael, his party supported the formation of the HSE. Deputy Olivia Mitchell said, "I welcome the reforms, as does Fine Gael, and we accept the need for a more centralised administration and for a clear chain of command through the health service, which was lacking."

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