Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

Having watched last night's television programme, it is my view that the Health Service Executive is a discredited organisation. The Leader should immediately call the Minister for Health and Children to the House. In a democratic society in which €14.5 billion is allocated annually to the health service, it is not right that the HSE should remain unaccountable. This is a difficult statement to make but it is also the reality. Those who deserve care and attention are not receiving it from the HSE.

At the time the health services were being reorganised, I argued that the decision not to have public representatives on the Health Service Executive, as had been the case with the health boards, would end accountability and the system of checks and balances. This is what has transpired. A similar situation arose with the former Blood Transfusion Service Board when people died. If there had been public representatives on its board, deaths would not have occurred.

While it is true, as we heard, that people paid tax at 75p in the pound, it was under a Fine Gael-Labour Party Government. For this reason, I do not want to see Senators opposite crying crocodile tears.