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

-----if this is not fixed. Then the CEO of the HSE is put in charge of the task force. Why he was not put in all along I do not know. Strangely, he has been put in from now until March, presumably to take care of the election for the Government and to try to deal with this issue during the electoral period.

The real cynicism at the heart of the Minister’s position is that when he became Minister he was given a briefing. He was told what would happen back in summer 2014 if action was not taken immediately in terms of delayed discharges, resources for the fair deal scheme, and not the possibility or probability, but the certainty that there would be a crisis in accident and emergency departments during that winter if action was not taken. He ignored that advice. He now wants heads to roll. He wants the heads of people whose advice he and his predecessor, Deputy James Reilly, have consistently ignored in respect of health matters.

We remember the CEO of Beaumont Hospital who said that the accident and emergency department was unsafe. The Government’s tactic then was to undermine the people making these comments. There is fear in the health sector. People are afraid to speak their minds, lest the Government get them. I recall the CEOs of the maternity hospitals and how they were dealt with because they put their heads above the parapet saying the situation in the maternity services was appalling. Their salaries were leaked by Government to undermine their position and as a signal to everybody else to keep quiet and not to embarrass the Government about the health services. It has its own way of sorting things out.

The waiting lists have gone through the roof, as have waiting times and the number of patients on trolleys. There are 400,000 on the outpatient lists. The Taoiseach got rid of Deputy Reilly and said that he was taking charge two years ago but he appointed Deputy Varadkar as Minister for Health. Will he accept that we are now witnessing appalling cynicism from the Government and from the Minister, in respect of his stewardship of the health service, as we head into a general election campaign?

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