Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Freedom of information is being handled by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin. He met the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform to discuss this recently and he is awaiting the response of and proposals from the committee. Following consideration of the views and recommendations of the committee and the drafting of the Bill by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, I expect that Bill to be published in this session.

The general scheme of the Bill is available on the website of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for all to see. As part of the legislative proposal, freedom of information will be extended to a number of high profile public bodies, including the Central Bank of Ireland, the NTMA and NAMA. Subject to the formal consultation required with the ECB, it is proposed that the Central Bank will be brought under the Freedom of Information Acts other than in respect of records that are subject to professional secrecy obligations, in particular under EU law and euro system requirements.

The public financial bodies, including the NTMA and NAMA, the NPRF and the NDFA, will all be brought within the jurisdiction of the Acts subject, in particular, to the maintenance of strict confidentiality of their engagement with their commercial counterparts, for example, in securing external private finance for the State. It is not proposed to bring the other banks under the legislation as they would not have policy or regulatory functions such as those held by the Central Bank. A question on that has been tabled for reply tomorrow as well.

The Department of Health, irrespective of Governments over the years, has been a Department that impacts on the lives of every household in the country at some stage or other. Clearly, when the Government led by Deputy Ó Fearghaíl's party put all the health boards together, put the superstructure of the HSE on top of that and expected it to work efficiently, it was never going to happen. To be honest with the Deputy, what used to apply when the Minister of the day would present his or her budget to the Cabinet and it would be approved, is that a service plan would be provided to implement that but one found afterwards that, because of demand or whatever, moneys were being moved around, not in any fraudulent fashion but where it was difficult to control what it was being spent on. The Minister, Deputy Reilly and the Ministers of State, Deputies Kathleen Lynch and Alex White, are now trying to change the system to one where universal health insurance will apply, where money will follow the patient and where one is able to do far more, far more effectively and with less than applied in the past. That is what is at stake here.

On what I did when I heard that this was out of line last year, I had a row about it and several fairly serious discussions. That is why the changes made by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, are moving to a point where there is far greater clarity about the programmes and the effectiveness of the voted budget for 2013 and a real emphasis on producing the legislation to give effect to the decisions made in the budget to ensure that will not happen again.

It is always difficult with the health portfolio, as Deputy Ó Fearghaíl is too well aware. It is a Department that must be seen to run very efficiently and effectively in the interests of the people. That is why I welcome, for example, the decision by the Minister, with the agreement of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, that 1,000 extra nursing jobs would be provided outside the employment framework at between €22,000 and €25,000 a year for young Irish-trained nurses who will get experience and an opportunity to work in Irish hospitals and gain their credentials at the equivalent starting rate as exists under the NHS. It is such decisions that impact the changed nature of the way we want to provide services. That is why, from the Minister's perspective, one is able to say to people that we want to keep them in their home and community for as long as possible, that they will then move to a facility as close as possible but, essentially, that medical attention is given based on medical need as distinct from what they have in their pocket. That is where, in the next few weeks, there will be the production of serious papers, in respect of both money following the patient and universal health insurance, which will be the basis for a real debate in the House, together with the publication of the Minister's decision in respect of the groupings for hospitals and the future for smaller local hospitals. This will impact for the betterment of the delivery of health services for the people.

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