Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

----- and a Minister who was asleep at the wheel in relation to the national children's hospital, a Minister who misled the Dáil, misled the public and who is letting down patients on a daily basis. We have a Minister who allowed the budget to go through this House, despite the fact that he knew there were hundreds of millions of euro of an overspend on the biggest capital project in this House. The next vote we will have after this motion of no confidence is to have Estimates resubmitted to the committee because of his overspend. This is hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money that is being squandered because this Minister was asleep at the wheel. This impacts on hundreds of thousands of patients - record levels of patients - who are waiting for appointments: 700,000 people. Hundreds of patients are lying on hospital trolleys every single day and scoliosis plan after plan are not being implemented. The numbers of children waiting for speech and language therapy and for occupational health therapy are at record levels. Nearly 80,000 women are waiting six months for the results of their tests because of a decision the Minister took. It is appalling.

I say to Fianna Fáil that this Government broke the confidence and supply agreement because of the "no surprise" provision. It has made fools of Fianna Fáil. Deputy Simon Harris spoke at his Ardfheis and called on Fianna Fail to stop this nonsense where its members were going into his Department and checking the figures and all the rest of that. He told Fianna Fáil to get on with it and to recommit to the confidence and supply agreement. He knew of the hundreds of millions euros of overspend in his Department on this project. The Minister did this because he knows that Fianna Fáil are completely impotent and incompetent at holding the Government to account.

We have been patient with the Minister because we could have put down this motion on many occasions in the past number of years, but this is the straw that broke the camel's back. This is about political accountability. I say to Members who genuinely believe this Minister has failed sick children, has failed our elderly, has failed our vulnerable and failed the taxpayer in his handling of the national children's hospital that they have only one thing to do and that is to vote no confidence in the Minister. If they fail to do that, they are the people keeping this incompetent Minister in his job in the weeks and months ahead.

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