Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Last night the House had an extensive debate on the economy. Will the Leader ask the Taoiseach to come to the House to explain a matter? Since the Health Service Executive was established four years ago, the number of senior managers has doubled, if not tripled. This morning we have learned that the HSE wishes to get rid of 200 of those senior managers. That is not the way to reform a health service. Getting rid of a large number of recently appointed managers will impose a huge cost on taxpayers.

I would also like the Minister for Health and Children to come to the House to explain a matter which I raised last night. The Government claims it wants to establish centres of excellence in order to benefit patient care. It is also Government policy, pushed very strongly by the Minister herself, to set up small private hospitals in every village. These hospitals provide exactly the service which the Government tells us would be dangerous for patients if provided in a public hospital. This is contradictory, hypocritical and a misleading of the people. Is the public service fit to provide this service or are private hospitals simply a means of cost cutting? This policy discriminates against patients who do not have access to private health care. I would like the Minister to explain this matter.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for Finance to comment on the Government's counter motion to Fine Gael's Private Members' motion last night? The counter motion acknowledged that house building output had reached unsustainable levels. At what stage in the past 12 months was it no longer unpatriotic to acknowledge that house building output had reached unsustainable levels? It is less than a year since the last general election. For at least 12 months before that we were being told it was unpatriotic to talk down the construction industry or comment on its unsustainability at the time. The people were misled for electoral purposes. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Finance to explain when the Government changed its views on the unsustainability of the housing market?