Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be very kind to the Minister but at the same time I must make this point, and I know he cannot disagree with me for making it. If a Deputy wants to tackle the Minister for Health on an issue by tabling a parliamentary question, he or she receives the response that the Minister has referred the matter to the HSE. It is maddening and the Minister would agree if he were on this side of the House and wanted to engage with a Minister for Health who was looking at him as though he had four heads and telling him to go away and take up the matter with the HSE. At the end of the day he is the Minister for Health. The buck should stop with whoever is the Minister and the Minister knows I am not being personal. I absolutely hate the idea of a Minister putting up the shutters of the HSE. It is like a shield with the Minister stating: "Please, go away, this is not my problem. I am just the Minister for Health. You must take your problem up with the HSE." This is absolutely not good enough. The Minister was very forceful when Mary Harney was the Minister. I remember him berating her, telling her she was the Minister and that it was her responsibility and she should not hide behind anyone else. What is he doing now that he is in the role himself? He is doing the exact same thing. Why does he not change?

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