Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)

When I was reading the substance of this Bill today, my overriding sense of it was that the one consistent feature of the health service over the past 20 years is change. Since the Health Act 2004 there has been so much chopping and changing with regard to our health management system. Some of that was out of necessity. There are some very real questions as to the timing of this Bill, particularly given that we are only a few months into the new regional executive officers, REO, structure. The question has to be asked: is this coming at a time to effectively tighten the screw on how resources are going to be managed and overruns dealt with within the HSE? On the face of it, this is a technical Bill, designed to give the Minister greater influence over the HSE delivery plan. That can only be a welcome thing because, to be honest, for far too long successive Ministers have been more commentators on the HSEs performance as opposed to drivers. I believe the Minister very much wants to drive what the HSE is doing.

The niggling question at the back of my mind in regard to the proposals here, in particular section 24, is what happens when something goes wrong? What happens when the CEO must inform the Minister that the HSE will likely exceed its capital or non-capital budget for the year, and then, what corrective measures does it need to take? Financial controls are important, and crucially important in the health sector, but the critical question here is: is the purpose to stay in budget or is it to meet the actual health demand that is out there?

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