Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I am not happy with the Minister's response. He might think his approach is reasonable. I am not sure what is meant by "a reasonable timeframe" — such a phrase is too vague. This is a question of management and of how people do their work. One of the problems with the health service is that we do not demand that certain standards are delivered on. As legislators, we should demand high standards. This open-ended provision, which will allow decisions to be made within "a reasonable timeframe", means nothing. I wish I could share the Minister's opinion that it might be counter-productive to provide for a two-month timeframe in some cases, as officials would take the full two months to do what needs to be done. I would like to think they could respond much faster than that. I want to ensure it will not take them more than two months to make decisions. People in the private sector work to better standards because timeframes are in place. It costs them money if they run over but when it comes to social services it is somehow down to poor management in certain areas. This is not the case across the board but we all know that many of our problems are down to management.

We need to set standards and to be more demanding to ensure proper delivery of services within proper timeframes. It is up to us to set those timeframes and ensure they are met. I am disappointed the Minister cannot see his way to be of like mind and accept this reasonable amendment.