Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats are supporting this motion of no confidence because we believe that any fair assessment of the performance of this Minister for Health would bring a person to the conclusion that his performance has just not been good enough. He has presided over a worsening health situation in which increasing numbers of people are being denied assess to basic healthcare in the community or in hospitals. The other half of the population are faced with mounting costs in terms of health insurance and additional costs for accessing every single service. As others have said, this Minister was offered an opportunity to address those issues. Never before has a Minister been offered a cross-party, fully-costed blueprint for the reform of the health service which would achieve a single-tier health service. This Minister has squandered that unique opportunity.

The final straw, by any standard, is the handling of the national children's hospital. We know that the Minister was kept informed about the spiralling cost of the children's hospital but another very interesting thing has come to my attention this evening. Last week, the Taoiseach made the completely false statement that Mr. Paul Quinn, head of the Office of Government Procurement, was precluded from informing anybody about the ballooning costs of the children's hospital. That statement was, of course, not true and it still needs to be withdrawn. I was curious as to whether Mr. Quinn had informed the Minister for Health or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I posed that question to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, this evening. I asked what contact there had been from Mr. Quinn in respect of the cost overruns. The Minister said that he met the individual concerned on 5 February and:

At this meeting we discussed his role as a member of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. I am satisfied that he met all of the responsibilities that he had as a member of the board and that the information regarding the project was being shared by the Board with the Department of Health. I am satisfied that happened.

I also put a question to the Minister for Health. His reply said:

There were no contacts made by the Office [...] in relation to cost overruns in the National Children's Hospital. I am advised that the Secretary General of my Department arranged a discussion with the individual concerned [...] on 18 October 2018, relating to the completion of [this process.]

Both things cannot be true. One of those answers is untrue. Will the Minister clarify which is untrue? The biggest failing is the failure of this Minister to address the question of co-location with a maternity hospital which, from a clinical perspective, is the most important aspect of this issue.

See this speech in context