Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He made that promise about five or six times in the last two years. He has been questioned repeatedly by journalists and by Opposition spokespeople, including Deputy Kelleher, Deputy Ó Caoláin and others, in regard to the progression of this particular commitment and the promise that was made. Up to very recently, he was denying all comments or statements to the effect that this would not be delivered and would not go ahead. Now, the Taoiseach is saying the Minister of State, Deputy White, has taken charge of the whole debacle and that he is dealing with it effectively. Dealing with it effectively, in the words of the Taoiseach, means, two and a half years on, that 56,000 people who were on the long-term illness scheme and who thought they were going to have free GP care in the first year of this Government are now being told that, for them, it has been abandoned - that particular commitment has been abandoned and will not proceed. That is how the Taoiseach describes and defines dealing effectively with a promise solemnly made by him and the Minister, Deputy Reilly. I repeat the question I asked the Taoiseach and which he avoided. What has to happen for the Taoiseach to realise what his colleagues privately acknowledge and the rest of the country has understood for quite some time now, which is that the Minister, Deputy Reilly, is not the man to lead the Department of Health?

See this speech in context