Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I am taking the Order of Business on behalf of Senator Fitzgerald. There are no objections from this side of the House to the issues raised. No Member of this House should be lied to or misled by another Member or by anybody making a presentation or otherwise responsible to this House. The credibility of some people is open to question and the reputation of institutions is being badly damaged. A few weeks ago the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government seemed to indicate through the words of its Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, in this House that it was aware in October 2006 that housing starts were going to slow down. However the Department of Finance made a number of forecasts to all the political parties that indicated the economy would go well for at least the next three years. Six months after the last general election we are now told this is not the case and the situation has changed in the housing market.

It is clear to everybody that things are not going well. One of the most amazing comments I have heard in the past few days is that the Taoiseach is trying to say the downturn in the housing market had to happen. That is how he has dismissed the crisis in the economy. Some six or 12 months ago the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance said everything was well with the housing market but that is not the case. Many have been fooled into borrowing large amounts of money. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance should issue a statement on why their forecasts were so wrong, what the Department of Finance knew before the election, what it knows now and whether we were misled on economic forecasts before the general election.

Deputy Carey should send the Garda Síochána to Government Buildings, not to RTE as he announced, on that other issue on which people have been misled, namely whether a Minister took cocaine. It may not be true, however if we are to be serious about the cocaine epidemic in our society, let us debate in this House what we should do about it. Have we views on mandatory drug testing or could we use softer options to reduce the amount of cocaine consumed?

We should not go on a witch hunt after a journalist who may or may not have made up the story that a Minister took cocaine. Cocaine is a serious problem. Let us debate what we can do about it, whether they be hard or soft options.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been asked on numerous occasions to come to the House to discuss issues such as gangland killings. There is a need to show how accountable the Minister and Garda Commissioner are to this House. More than a year ago we were promised that the Leas Cross report would be sent to the Garda Commissioner to examine whether anybody should be prosecuted for the deaths of patients at Leas Cross. What happened there was a scandal and a disgrace to our health services. What was a greater scandal was how Ministers and senior officials in the Health Service Executive washed their hands of their responsibilities and described it as a system error. If the Leas Cross report was sent to the Garda Commissioner, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should indicate whether any criminal prosecutions will follow or whether the Commissioner has quietly shelved the report. It is important that the House be informed of progress when it requests that something be done. This issue must be pursued. What are the views of the Garda Commissioner on the Leas Cross report?

Moving from the issue of misleading Members of the House, there is a report in today's newspapers which indicates that Professor Drumm might not have been totally clear when he addressed Members two weeks ago. It is unbelievable. If I remarked in the House that the health reforms had stalled and that the health service is dysfunctional and very expensive, Members on the Government side would accuse me of exaggerating and spreading rumours and would urge me to support the HSE and Professor Drumm. However, an internal memorandum from Professor Drumm to his managers clearly states that the health service reforms have stalled and that the health services are dysfunctional and very expensive. I am aware that they are expensive——