Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased with the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, and her attempts to get back this money and send out a clear message to the effect that when we ring fence €35 million it should be spent on mental health services. There was cross-party support on this issue.

This reforming Bill is an important step towards the roll out of free general practitioner care. I compliment the new Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, on his stated intention to begin the process of rolling out free GP care this year. The Minister of State, Deputy White, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, are to be commended in this regard. I look forward to the continued development of primary care centres. There is a new centre due to go to construction in my hometown of Greystones next month.

When we are discussing the health service and public sector reform in general we should stop talking about it with unions and national politicians while ignoring the people who actually know how to reform the services. Those who know where the savings are and how to make the structures better are the people working in the health service. I appeal to the Government and to everyone involved in political life in this regard. By all means let us have national talks with union leaders and national politicians and doorsteps and "Six-one" news coverage, but we must also discuss the issues with the nurse on the ward and the dentist working in the primary care centre. We must consult them on where they see opportunities to save money, what they see in terms of waste and how they would run services. Despite all the discussion we have had about public sector reform, this element has been missing.

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