Tony Kett (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to the House. If the Minister, Deputy Martin, were here I would congratulate him, as I did a couple of weeks ago, on the fine job he is doing in the Department of Health and Children. He has the most difficult portfolio because, no matter what he does and no matter how much funding he allocates to any group in the health sector, our good friends in the Opposition will tell him he is not doing enough. Perhaps they are justified in doing so, as one can never do enough in terms of funding in the health area.

Senator Tuffy said there should be a new focus on the implementation of health policies. The Minister for Health and Children has taken the bull by the horns by placing a new focus on health in terms of value for money. People have started to believe the old adage that no matter how much one throws into health, it will not be enough. It has become accepted that one cannot go wrong when allocating funds to the Department of Health and Children, as it did not have enough to start with. The original funds were never followed through the system.

As someone who works in the financial end of the health sector, I can confirm that there has been a great deal of wastage in the sector since the 1970s. If it were being run as a going concern or as a commercial organisation at that time, it would not have lasted three months. Money which was badly needed in the health sector was focused in the wrong direction in many instances and wasted in other instances. That has changed.