David Norris (Independent)

The Minister for Health and Children cannot be made responsible for each individual case. The greatest political friend I ever had in my life was Mr. Noel Browne and I salute him, because he single-handedly broke through the curse of tuberculosis. He broke the piggy-bank of the sweepstakes and established hospitals everywhere. If Mr. Noel Browne was in this House or the other House demanding that we respond to every individual case it would have impeded delivery of the programme. This is the reason we must avoid the Joe Duffy radio programme route. We betray ourselves as politicians when we do take it.

We can all agree, however, that we have all been touched by the hospice movement. It is unparalleled in the humane treatment of people who are terminally ill. Yet, we have a situation which is ludicrous, where there is a budget allocation made for a hospice, for its development and to continue its work and then at the end of the year, it finds it has not been given the money to spend. The money has been re-allocated to make up a deficit in another area. This is wrong and we must be focused and prioritise. We must stop messing around and playing politics with this issue. We must take seriously our responsibility to the citizens of Ireland and deliver a decent health service. Given a choice between the two sides, on balance, having previously supported the Minister for Health and Children, who is courageous even when she is wrong — I do not know whether she has testosterone and I am not a sexual expert on this matter, she may or may not have — I will vote with the Opposition tonight.