Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I have listened on many occasions to Members from all sides of the House criticising the HSE and the services it often does not deliver. This happened again today and I concur with Senator Prendergast's views on the psychiatric services where there is a significant deficit.

The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, once referred to the HSE as a big ship that would not be turned overnight and how right she is. I remind the Minister of who it was created, constructed and designed this ship, namely, the HSE. It is certainly a ship that is overburdened with administration. I do not think there were any voluntary redundancies; instead many new administrative grades were created. It is costing a fortune to maintain and run the HSE. Professor Drumm has been appointed captain of the ship but it seems to be going around in circles. It is rudderless and going nowhere and it is certainly not reaching the people it should, namely, the citizens of this State. They are stranded without the services they deserve. It is lurching from crisis to crisis. I refer to the record of misdiagnosis of cancer, trolleys in wards and the lack of psychiatric services. Members on all sides of the House agree that it is unaccountable, it lacks transparency and we are not getting the service we deserve from it. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate not on the services but on the HSE's structures and how it was put together.

There is a job of work to be done. I am not sure of the figure but more than 100,000 people are employed in the HSE. Many of those very good people work on the front line. I feel sorry for those people, the nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, who are delivering a service on the front line and who are criticised in public fora such as this. I feel sorry for those people because they are overburdened and overworked. We need to look under the stones of the HSE and find where the real inefficiencies lie. I appeal to the Leader to invite whoever is the Minister for Health and Children to the House to debate the structures of the HSE and to see if a better model can be found which is more effective and more responsive to the needs of this country.