Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity afforded to the House to discuss the health service. The maxim, "if it's not broken, don't fix it", is often used in politics which unfortunately does not apply to the health services or their structuring down the years. I very much welcome the fact that we are moving away from the former structures because they did not provide the necessary quantity or quality of service to patients, which is what this debate should be about. It is a little like the Government in that respect. It is not a question of a bigger or smaller Government or health service; rather it is a question of whether it will be a better health service. It is on that question that we should judge this Bill.

In almost every debate held in the House in the past two years, no matter what policy area is being discussed, Government Members have used the phrase "since 1997" as if some great age of enlightenment started in that year. We hear that since 1997 a certain figure has increased by a certain percentage and so on. When we refer to the health services, we should not use the term "since 1997"; we should begin our remarks using the term "since 1987". Senator Leyden, who was very much a player in the field of politics in 1987, will recall the slogan which Fianna Fáil used in that year to gain power, namely, "health cuts hurt the old, the sick and the poor".