Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I plead with the Leader to arrange a debate next week on compensation for beet growers, on which a decision is due in the middle of July. I have no qualms in saying I have no confidence in the Minister for Agriculture and Food on this issue. She has shown herself to have been totally inept in this area from day one despite her having been warned about it in October 2004 when she became Minister. Given that the decision is to be made in the middle of July, there is no point in our debating the matter next September or October. I ask the Leader to try to arrange for a short debate on this very important topic next week to allow the Minister to listen to the views and concerns of Members of all parties.

I do not necessarily share the views expressed in the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006 report and believe the health service is not as bad as it makes out. However, I take two main points from the report, the first of which is that there is a clear problem accessing information. Freedom of information requests and parliamentary questions are not being replied to properly and the HSE is not responding to people. This has been raised at the Joint Committee on Health and Children. The committee wrote to the Minister for Health and Children on the issue and all it got back was a reply stating its request was acknowledged, but not an answer. We need to address the information deficit and if this could be done we would be in a far better position to understand what is going on in the health service. We should consider the situation in Norway, where the authorities increased funding for the health service substantially but got no reward for doing so. Money, therefore, is not necessarily the solution.

We should invite the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Seán Power, to talk to us again about the nursing home charges repayment scheme and the awarding of the contract. I have raised serious concerns about this in the House and they are becoming more serious by the day. An article in today's edition of The Irish Times states KPMG has been awarded the contract. Was it one of the original 11 companies that applied? If not, why did it not apply originally and why was it given the contract? There are serious questions to be asked about this issue, it has delayed the tendering process and we feel the Department and the HSE could have conducted the scheme themselves. The press statement claims there is no delay in the tendering process, yet, a year and a half later, people have still not been paid.