Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The director general of the HSE will be in the same position as the current chief executive in that he or she will be accountable to an Oireachtas committee. There is little change. This Bill is supposedly the first stage in the introduction of universal health insurance but we do not have much detail in that respect. The board of the HSE was abolished well over a year ago and nothing much has happened except that a gap has formed in accountability and direction. Officials on the ground do not know which way the Minister wishes them to go or how the political wind is blowing. There is a total lack of leadership and accountability, which is wrong, as the officials on the ground are taking the flak which the Minister is refusing to take.

The Minister is examining structures rather than people's health care. He is replacing a system with a very similar model but he will be able to say, in public relations terms, that we are making progress. The HSE has been in place for seven years and the Minister is giving himself longer to sort out these problems, and he will be able to say that the process was always going to take two Dáil terms. The Minister should have given the non-political public health service a bit more time, as there have been significant improvements in the past number of years, despite some faults.

Many of the Minister's promises remain unfulfilled. Fine Gael Deputies in my area are going around with leaflets boasting about the new GP card for long-term illness but nothing has happened in that regard. There were promises relating to a regional hospital before the last general election but nothing has happened in that regard either. Direct promises have been broken, and it is of great concern that power is being handed back to the Minister. I would personally oppose the Bill on that basis, as it is utterly wrong.

This has nothing to do with accountability. The Bill provides for the director general to be accountable, which will reduce the accountability of the Minister. Ministers were always good at taking credit while avoiding the bad news, and the current Minister, Deputy Reilly, is the same. There is not much change in that respect. He is putting in place many of the old health board structures that failed us when there was political interference leading, for example, to cancer services being kept in places when they should not have been. The national cancer strategy was rejected in the last Dáil, and a current Minister of State, Deputy Perry, disgracefully promised sick women that there would be a cancer service in Sligo. I do not know how people can sleep at night when they tell cancer patients-----