Alex White (Labour)

The question of political accountability does not extend to holding a Minister responsible for a failing that happens in a hospital. That would be nonsensical. The analogy given by Senator O'Toole is wrong. Where the system is not working — as the Senator stated, the Minister established that system — there must be political accountability. Is the Opposition supposed to just sit back and wait? Senator O'Toole stated that this is not a political issue at present. When will it become a political issue? Of course it is such an issue. There could not be a more political issue than the crisis in the health service.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for Finance, when he deals with the matter with which he will be preoccupied next week, to come before the House to engage in a debate on public services and on any reforms he envisages, particularly in light of the interesting speech on public service reform he delivered at last week's Indecon conference? Will the Minister come to the House and indicate any proposals he may have in this area, particularly in light of the comments he made last week and in view of the less thoughtful and ill-considered remarks made by the Minister of State with responsibility for trade and commerce, Deputy McGuinness? The latter was the beneficiary of what must count as the most remarkable employment expansion scheme in the public service. I refer here to the Taoiseach's appointment of additional Ministers of State in recent months.

Does the Minister for Finance agree with the comments of the Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, to the effect that the public service and its systems are a joke? If that is the level of debate we can expect from Ministers, what hope is there for this House to debate serious issues such as value for money and the important role the public service has to play in our society and its economy? The public service will lie at the heart of the economy's future and remarks such as those to which I refer will not help promote debate here or in the Lower House.