Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House. I congratulate Mr. Travers on producing such a comprehensive and speedy report. He was appointed on 16 December and worked throughout Christmas and the new year so the report could be put on the Tánaiste's desk. In summary, the Travers report states that the fundamental reason for the problems we now face lies in long-term systemic corporate failure. The phrase "long-term" covers a 30-year period in which the problem was not properly dealt with. The report states that the Department of Health and Children was well aware of legal concerns surrounding the practice of charging when it was introduced in 1976. These concerns persisted and continued to be articulated anew right up to the present. On that basis, it is absolutely wrong to make a political scapegoat out of any individual Minister or to hold any Minister responsible for erroneous activity over three decades.

In this 29-year period, there were 16 Ministers, seven of whom were not from Fianna Fáil or the Progressive Democrats. They were all senior Ministers and they served for 11 years of the 29. Senators O'Toole and O'Rourke rightly pointed out that it is wrong to scapegoat any politician in this case, particularly a Minister. Page 39 of the report states that the problems did not derive from the 2001 Act. They had their origins in the decisions taken many years previously. I will make that point to Senator Finucane.