Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his wide ranging response to the initial questions we put down but I do not know that I learned much. It strikes me the Taoiseach did not spend 14 years on this side of the House without learning much from the master who occupied his seat over many years.

I would like to pick the Taoiseach up on two relevant points. He referred to freedom of information, saying it has been a priority issue for him and he has made positive comments about it. Again, there is a significant difference between what the Taoiseach says and what he does. We have seen in these Houses successive debates on critical issues being closed down. Parliamentary questions to Ministers and to the Taoiseach are regularly refused.

I hear from colleagues that Members of this House are now resorting to the freedom of information process on an ongoing basis. Perhaps the Taoiseach is not aware that such is the case. That practice runs counter to the laudable sentiments he himself expresses.

The Taoiseach also made mention of the health services. He stated in the past that he has increased his co-ordination of Ministers generally and that he has a general oversight of what is happening in the Department of Health. In the context of that and the strategy statement, what did the Taoiseach do last year when it emerged that the budget for the Department of Health was seriously off track and what is he doing to deal with the growing lack of confidence in the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly? While I have a great deal of regard for Deputy Reilly, have known him for many years and he is sincere in his commitment, and while he did win a motion of confidence in this House, I can assure the Taoiseach that he would win no motion of confidence among the people who despair about the current state of the health services.

The Taoiseach stated that currently there are 1.8 million persons on medical cards and that is a growing number. Of course it is growing because incomes right across society are declining. I put it to him that it is paradoxical that the HSE's service plan for 2013 envisages there being 40,000 fewer medical cards in place. Recently I had a meeting - one of an ongoing series of meetings - with the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation, one of the most laudable charitable organisations in this country, run by a man, Mr. Jonathan Irwin, who is a national treasure in terms of the work that he is doing in the area of palliative care for seriously ill children. It offends me, and the Taoiseach must be personally offended, that these small children are encountering inordinate difficulties in having medical cards provided to them and have had in other instances the discretionary medical cards provided to them withdrawn, albeit that their circumstances will never improve and they are on an almost inexorable road in terms of their prognosis and the palliative care they receive. I make a personal plea to the Taoiseach.

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