Mary Henry (Independent)

I support the amendment. The executive will have a staggering budget of €11 billion. Although Senators know there are many developments taking place in the health sector, they constantly ask where the money is going. When I looked at the details we received to date on the mental health services, for example, I could not fully work out where the money allocated to that sector was going. It seems that some of it will be allocated to the national hospitals office and more to the primary, community and continuing care section. There seem to be very few references in the legislation to the person who will be in charge of all the moneys. Some is to be spent here and more is to be spent there. The more accountability we have, the better, because management in some systems is very fragmented. In the mental health services, in which I have been involved for years, nobody seems to be identifying who will be in charge of the various parts of the system.