Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like other Senators, I support the Bill. It is a positive and necessary stepping stone that will bring us closer to the ultimate goal of the dissolution of the HSE. The Minister has intended to dissolve the HSE since we came to government.

The programme for Government clearly spelled out the intended future of the health service and the continued existence of the HSE was not part of it. The HSE is simply an organisation that has managers managing managers. A manager should at least have a budget and without one they should not be a manager. The situation that has prevailed to date is out of control. It was Senator Moloney who said that there are seven or eight layers of bureaucracy between the Minister and front line staff. That says it all.

The Bill provides for the abolition of the HSE board, which was established under the Health Act 2004, and for a new governing structure to fill its place. The board will be replaced by a directorate which will ensure further oversight and accountability for the HSE. The directorate structure is an interim measure intended to help put in place a more direct line of accountability between the HSE and the Minister. From a policy point of view, as well as every other point of view, the structure is welcome and necessary.

The HSE will face many significant challenges in the year ahead given the resources that are available and the dual constraints of both the national recovery plan and the Croke Park agreement. The health sector - like all other sectors - has experienced a reduction in financial resources over the past three consecutive years. During the period we have also seen a steady improvement in service and effectiveness which we hope will increase in the coming years.

The improvements are clear and must be acknowledged but there is more to come during this transitory period. I welcome the overhaul of the HSE's governance structure. The organisation has had eight years to prove its effectiveness but Senator Byrne has suggested that it should be allowed to continue for another few years to see if it could work. It is that type of Fianna Fáil logic that has led to the property sector going from boom to bust. There is an expression that "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" but I believe that if it is broken then one should fix it. In that respect it is good that we can control the health service and that sense will prevail.

With resources tighter than before we need to ensure that one hand talks to the other at all times and that the Minister has full, complete, accurate and timely information when making decisions that are crucial to the future of services both nationally and regionally. As the Minister has said, the new HSE directorate structure will allow us to redesign the system and to put the needs of the patient front and centre. The Bill will bring us closer to that happening and will allow us to take another crucial step in unwinding the years of damage. It will also make the health service more dynamic, agile, flexible, efficient, less expensive and more patient centred. I have belief in the Bill and the positive agenda that has been set regarding HSE reform. I commend the Minister and his officials on their work.