Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I refer to the debate on the Health Service Executive held in the House last week.

I have never witnessed such blatant tactics by the Government side, engaging in time wasting, going over time, talking about smoothies and nothing to do with the HSE bearing in mind the kind of crises and scandals we have witnessed in recent times and not so recent times where the Government needs legislation to access files, where we have had misdiagnoses of miscarriages and secret committees advising the HSE in the background about reconfiguration, where we have had misdiagnoses of breast cancer and letters not being opened in hospitals. In that debate I called on the Minister to take responsibility for the HSE. She appears to be on the run. She was not available for the quarterly meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children; that debate has been deferred. She did not answer any questions last week and the Government side went over time and deliberately wasted time so that the Minister did not have to be accountable. It is a matter of urgency for the Minister to come back in here-----