Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Oscar Wilde once famously said “Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself.” We need to recognise that a lot of water has gone under the bridge in the years since the HSE was set up. It did not prove itself to be what I thought it was. It proved to me what I thought it would not be and unfortunately I was right. It was decided way back that by taking politicians out of the system, party politics would no longer play a role in the delivery of health services. Party politics is part of the democratic system. It did not always fail in the past. The health boards were set up in 1970 by a Fianna Fáil Minister. The thinking behind that structure was sound. They needed to be improved and helped as time passed. They needed to take account of changing times and changed responsibilities, but they did not always do that. There were problems with the boards, but they had structures that could be operated and could be made to work effectively for the people.

I hope that the current proposals will work; I am not so sure. I hope I am not right, but in four, five or seven years or whenever, somebody may point out that we did not really do it right and that a different structure will be needed. How long can we go on like that? How long can we keep pointing out these things and asking ourselves when we will do it?

I had great respect for the previous chief executive of the HSE. I know that the CervicalCheck thing was a difficult situation that arose and he vacated the post somewhat before he was due to do so. I was not all that impressed with his swipe at the Minister on his way out the door. If we want to play politics with these things, we can all play politics. That applies to those both inside and outside the party political system. I have no difficulty with that and I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle would have no difficulty with it either. One of the greatest things about the involvement in public life is that we still can and will continue to interact and make our views known at every opportunity that it is required.

Deputy Kelly and I have exchanged views from time to time. He mentioned one of the things that is required and the intention is to provide it. That is, very simply, good governance with the transparency, accountability and all that goes with it. I was once a member of a committee that carried out an inquiry into the banking system and deposit interest retention tax in this country. It was very beneficial to the State and raised approximately €2 billion for the State in an earlier time. After a six-month inquiry, the conclusion and recommendations were that there would be good governance, good fiduciary practice, accountability, and regular monitoring by different accountancy firms so that there would be no crossover and nothing would be missed. That was in 1999.

We can have all the good ideas in the world, but we need to be more effective than that was in terms of what should have followed - incidentally it was the only sworn inquiry that was concluded in the history of this House. I think it is effective. However, the problem was that when we finished and the personalities involved went off about their business, it only took them less than four years to unwind the intentions of what the committee proposed. We can have all the good intentions in the world, but unless what we recommend in this House is taken seriously, nothing will change and everything will continue as before.

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