Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The overall service provided has not diminished in its impact or effect. While costs have been extracted from the delivery of health services, there has been no diminution in their quality.

The Deputy claimed the Government had interfered with the HSE's annual plan when it certainly did not. The duty and responsibility of the Minister for Health are to either accept or not accept the draft plan submitted by the HSE. The Budget Statement was announced in the House. In turn, the HSE, based on the budget figures provided for the Department of Health, prepared a draft health service plan which was, in turn, sent to the Minister for Health who examined it for several weeks. He then brought it to the Cabinet and made recommendations to change it. He did so for good reasons. The original draft plan, arising from the budget figures, proposed that €113 million be saved in medical card provision through a probity check. The Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for that area analysed this and concluded it was obvious that this was not an achievable figure. The figure was then reduced to €23 million. It was not a case of interfering with the draft plan submitted by the HSE but of the Minister amending the plan for certain reasons.

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