Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said before, the Minister was like Wyatt Earp heading to the OK Corral. He was going to shoot them down anyway so they said they would flee before he got rid of them. That is the point. He had the cameras waiting as well for it so there is no point in us pretending otherwise. They were going to be dismissed. He then appointed another board. As early as March or April of 2012, the then CEO of the HSE told the Minister that the budget he presented to the Dáil was no longer valid. This was only after a few months. We saw political spin again this time last year where the Minister was reviewing the health service plan and asked for amendments to it. The unfortunate thing was we did not know what Minister was asking for in respect of the amendments and what they decided to change on foot of his request. However, we know for sure that last December, the Minister needed a Supplementary Estimate to keep the show on the road even though he had been warned about it months in advance and nothing was done. We heard this last year from the former Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, when she was corresponding with the Minister on a regular basis and pleading with him to bring forward the legislative proposals required to bring about savings and income streams to ensure the budget would be sustainable. We then had the unfortunate decisions relating to cutbacks in home help hours and personal needs assistants and other measures.

Tony O'Brien, the director general designate of the HSE, was the Accounting Officer but it seems it was the Minister who decided to do the U-turn. He then said it was not his decision in the first place. That is where we have clear problems with governance. There is no distinct provision in respect of the Accounting Officer, Tony O'Brien, and the Department of Health and Children. We have this very opaque place where there are many questions to be answered in terms of who makes the decisions and who does the U-turns. We still have not found this out six months after those decisions were made last September. Those issues were also highlighted by Deputy Shortall when she was Minister of State. She questioned the idea of the interference and the lack of direction and political will to keep the health service plan of 2012 on track.

In respect of the health service plan of 2013, we could go back to the original part of the Minister's speech where he said "the vision which springs from the programme for Government is set out in Future Health: A Strategic Framework for Reform of the Health Service 2012-15". The programme for Government is in rag order because the Minister has done complete U-turns on many of its provisions. They include medical card eligibility-----

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