Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. The Minister referred to years of mismanagement. The reality is the clinical director and the group general manager are, in practice, the same people in which he now has trust. They are the people I always had trust in when the Minister's party was undermining them personally on local radio interviews in recent years. Every time they made a decision in the best interests of patients the Fine Gael, Labour Party and Sinn Féin spokespersons came on to undermine these individuals and doctors publicly and privately. Now, while the Minister is ascribing years of mismanagement to our Government, the managers whom the HSE trusted to do the job are the same people the Minister now trusts to do the job. I believe they are the right people but the Minister is putting the emphasis on the special delivery unit, SDU. He stated the hospital is working with the SDU. Those in the hospital should be allowed to get on with the job, under supervision from the HSE, the board and the Minister. I am unsure what the addition of a Civil Service structure will bring to it but it seems this is the case and the facts speak for themselves: there are almost three times as many people on trolleys since the Minister took power.