Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. I have never doubted his personal commitment in the context of transforming the health service, nor did I doubt the commitment of the previous Minister, Mary Harney, or that of her predecessor in that regard. When I sat on the opposite side of the House, I had no difficulty uttering robust comments if I perceived that things were not being done correctly, that something was unfair or that money was being wasted. I assure the Minister that my position will be absolutely consistent in the context of what I am about to say in respect of the health service.

I fear that the Minister's pre-election position and that of many of his colleagues has changed. Both the country's budgetary position and the difficulties in the health service have been clear for some time. As the Minister correctly pointed out, if money alone could solve the problem then we would have the best health service in the world because we invested billions of euro — more than 50% of the tax take — in the health service over the years.

The first criticism I wish to make — I made it on a daily basis when Mary Harney was Minister — is that it is inconceivable that we give more than 50% of our tax take to a third-party organisation that operates at arm's length and tell it to run the health service with that money. That is wrong. The Minister replaced the board of the HSE when he came to office. I am of the view that he should now assume responsibility for the budget to which I refer because he, as the people's representative, should have control of it. When I write to the Minister in respect of a budgetary matter relating to the health service, it is not acceptable that I receive a reply which states that under the Health Act 2004 which, I accept, we all supported, the CEO of the HSE now has responsibility for such matters and that the Minister has written to him to ask that he respond to me. That is not acceptable to people who are members of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or the Labour Party or those who are apolitical. I believe in the Minister's commitment to change the system. I want him to change it and I would be doing no one a service if I did not attempt to hold him to account in that regard.

I am not interested in political point-scoring. However, the commitments given in the lead-up to the election — regardless of whether these were made by Senator O'Keeffe, in respect of a centre of excellence in Sligo, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, or the leader of the Labour Party and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore — were reprehensible. The commitments relating to Roscommon County Hospital and many other aspects of the health service were also reprehensible. It was patently wrong for anyone to make the type of commitments to which I refer. I recall people going around wearing T-shirts with the legend "Save our cancer services" emblazoned on them. Such T-shirts also exhorted people to give their first preference to party X or party Y because it was going to do its supporters proud and return what had been stolen from them.