Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, want to speak on this motion. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward. Again, it is a saga concerning the HSE. As the Minister stated, she is constrained in what she can say and must wait for the report. We have so many reports and so many investigations, but they are all inside investigations. It is wrong for anybody, but a child especially, to have an invasive procedure that was not necessary or was in error. It beggars belief that this is going on. As we know, it came to light in 2021 and prior to that. The report asks why the pace was so slow. This is for every person who had an incorrect or unnecessary procedure. Children have parents, siblings and wider families. It is a shocking indictment that in 2025 this is being allowed to continue and that nobody seems to be accountable.

I have wished the Minister well. I hope she does well with the HSE, but so many Ministers have made promises. As has been said, we have been waiting for the children's hospital; it is a saga. There was a campaign to prevent it being built where it is now located. The Minister's former party leader and former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, chose the site. The current leader tried to deny he signed the contract. Why would there be accountability on the part of officialdom when Ministers are not held accountable? The buck has to stop somewhere for the people who are watching this debate to see what goes on here and what goes on in Departments in terms of the lack of accountability.

I remember when the Secretary General moved from the then Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to the Department of Health. He got an extra €60,000 or €70,000 to move. For what? Where is the accountability? Somebody - including Secretaries General in Departments - must be held accountable. The Minister is ultimately responsible, but they are the people under him or her. There must be accountability, and there is not.

I said this earlier, and I will be repetitive. The HSE was set up with the single purpose of taking accountability away from the political heads. We have no accountability now. We do not have it from the political heads or the heads in the Department. Many good people work in these hospitals, in the HSE and in the different organisations. They do their best, but they are embarrassed by the situation that these are standard procedures, and rightly so. Why should they not be?

This motion will, I am sure, be dealt with in the same way as many other motions. The Minister stated that she cannot accept it because she is waiting for a report. There is always some excuse. We must start taking accountability and provide the services.

In the context of money, when I came here first, there was €6 billion or €7 billion for the Department of Health. The amount now is €26 billion or €27 billion. While we have a lot of good outcomes, we have less accountability - practically none.

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