Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

It annoys the ordinary man and woman on the street when the Minister for Health and Children basically washes her hands of her responsibility for how taxpayers' money is spent. I ask that she comes into this House and clearly states what her responsibilities are to citizens in regard to health services, as perhaps she is basically saying her Department is no longer relevant and, therefore, one would have to ask why she is there in first place.

We have to examine this because we will be voting on a budget in eight weeks. The hard decisions that need to be made to protect our economy are difficult political decisions. The easier political decisions that can be made could have a detrimental effect on the recovery of our economy. We are avoiding this hard debate on the economy but we need to have it. We also need to have a debate promised by the Leader of the House on ministerial expenses and on the excesses in terms of the waste of taxpayers' money that were allowed to happen during the previous decade.