Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I second the amendment. As Senator Browne said, this matter is one of the cornerstones of the legislation. While the amendment's list of issues which will be allowed to be discussed is not full and comprehensive, many important issues, such as accountability, are mentioned therein. The amendment clarifies that the executive will be accountable to the committee and mentions the structures that will be put in place to ensure it is accountable. The Tánaiste spoke about the role of the Joint Committee on Health and Children on Second Stage last week in the Seanad. As Senator Browne said, the legislation is quite vague in this regard, which is not good enough. The issue of accountability is of such importance that it should be dealt with in the Bill more specifically. When one examines previous attempts to ensure accountability over the past ten or 15 years — I refer to tribunals, etc. — one would think we should bend over backwards to get it right.

We should ensure that the legislation is framed in a way that does not place a question mark over the ability of any committee to make a body of this nature accountable. When one considers the size of the health service executive's budget and the level of control it will have over the health service, one understands the importance of accountability. Like Senator Henry, I will not be surprised if we have to revisit this matter because it is one of the fundamental weaknesses of the legislation. That we are not considering the legislation as fully as we should represents, in itself, a major failure in our legislative process. Will the Minister of State consider accepting this amendment, which concerns one of the cornerstones of the legislation?