Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That was a long three minutes. There was €20 million involved here. It is perfectly legitimate for the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach to interrogate that. The committees are committees of this House, not committees of the Government. If there is an external review, it is an issue for the Government or the Department. As with Sláintecare, for example, an all-party approach is needed. When the head of the HSE and the Secretary General met with the Joint Committee on Health recently in relation to Sláintecare, it was very clear that they do not want to implement Sláintecare in full. The permanent government was making that decision. The permanent government is telling the Committee of Public Accounts that we cannot have a report or discuss the cost of the national children's hospital. We keep being told that lessons are being learned, yet we do not learn lessons. The Minister of State with responsibility for disability services is being refused access to the people who are on the front line on the operational side. The Taoiseach knows, as do I and everyone else in this House, that there is a very significant problem with disability services. It is absolutely improper to refuse the Minister of State access to the staff in order to interrogate the issue and understand what it is going on so it can be resolved.

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