Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I wish to raise two brief points before coming to the main point. I welcome yesterday's report on the pyrite issue. Obviously much work must be done on the issue. The people in the commuter belt in County Meath and in surrounding counties will have a little more patience on the issue but not much more. Yesterday's report is an indication of some progress. I am meeting many residents next week to discuss what action they wish to take, given that so far there has been no action on the issue.

An issue that affects Senator Diarmuid Wilson and me is the Meath-Cavan-Tyrone powerline. Fine Gael made fantastic promises in opposition, ran fabulous campaigns and buried the cables. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, has told EirGrid to go ahead with all due haste immediately with the proposal in place under the previous Government. That is another broken promise for the counties of Meath, Cavan and Monaghan, and it also affect the North.

The main issue affecting people's ordinary lives today is the health of the nation. The health service is on course to run a €500 million deficit. This is not because of the IMF, Fianna Fáil or Deputy Micheál Martin, who is constantly blamed, but the failure of the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, to run his budget properly. He presented what was a false Estimate to Dáil Éireann last December. He failed to implement the necessary legislation on time. One of those pieces of legislation is only coming before us today, namely, the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Bill 2012, which was released with great fanfare on Tuesday. The delay in publishing the Bill and the fact that is only coming before the Oireachtas on the day the Dáil goes into recess are partially responsible for the €500 million deficit in the health service.

Last autumn the Minister, Deputy Reilly, said that legislation on drug pricing was being finalised and would be submitted in 2011. It was included in the budget 2012 savings. The HSE performance report in April stated that none of the €124 million projected savings had been delivered to date because of a failure to introduce legislation. The chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Cathal Magee, stated on 28 June:

In our plan the assumption was that we would save €124 million in drug payments, with a substantial part delivered through a new pricing agreement with the industry. That has not come through.

Legislation on reference pricing and generic drugs was only published seven months after being budgeted for, which is outrageous. Because of the failure and volatility of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and his concentration on other important matters facing him, wards will be closed, nurses will work reduced hours in some cases, operations will be cancelled, and emergency units and medical assessment units will go on shorter hours. This is all because of the Minister's delay and inaction. While many people criticise Deputy Martin, who was last Minister for Health and Children in 2004, he did fantastic work then.