Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is my pleasure to welcome the former Senator, now Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, to the House. He will be diligent in his new position. Having sat beside me during the term of the previous Government, I know he is a dedicated politician.

Owing to the Whip system I will have to vote with my colleagues. I had the privilege of serving with the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, on the Joint Committee on Health and Children for two years. He knows his business upside down and inside out. I am prepared to give him a chance. The gossip is demeaning and brings politics into disrepute. What is happening is taking from the serious work that has to be done in the complicated issue in the Department of Health and the HSE. I also support the Minister because of his vision and strategy for the health service.

I am totally opposed to the dual health service here where a rich person can go to the Blackrock Clinic the next day but a poor person must wait a year. The Minister's strategy is to have a fair and efficient single-tier health service supported by a strong primary care system and underpinned by universal health insurance. That is why I support his vision and strategy. We are here to change the health system and to turn it upside down and change it inside out.