Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Following on from the points I made yesterday, I must mention that the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health have apologised to Marie Fleming and her family for the lack of respect and dignity shown in reviewing her medical card eligibility, but the question that must be asked is who is going to apologise to the countless people in all of our constituencies whose cases are not as high profile as the one I mentioned yesterday? We are all aware of elderly or ill persons in our areas who have had to put up with an inordinate level of documentation and double checking in proving their illnesses. At this stage in their lives they are entitled to a little more human dignity. The State surely owes them this. I again propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Health come to the House to discuss this issue, the €300 million overrun - double the figure predicted by him, although not double the amount I predicted last February - and what he perceives to be the success of the special delivery unit in cutting waiting lists, which is a figment of his imagination, as the figures speak for themselves.

There has been a 40% increase in the number of people waiting for more than three months, a 97.7% increase in the number waiting for more than six months and a tenfold increase in the number waiting for more than one year. It is much more worrying that waiting lists for children have more than doubled. A total of 26,245 children are waiting for more than three months for surgery, which is fundamentally unacceptable.

I do not mean to be personal, but we must judge people on their performance. The Minister abolished the HSE board and appointed his own board and interim chief executive officer. He said the buck would stop with him and that he would run the board. He has run it for two years, but there is still a headless chicken approach, with a €300 million overrun this year and €660 million supposedly to be saved next year. It is to be saved in front-line services, yet the chief executive officers of the main hospitals have told us services are creaking at the seams. When will common sense prevail? What is the Taoiseach owed by the Minister that he is not prepared to take action and put somebody different in the Department who might have the confidence of the people and might show a little competence in managing €13 billion of their money? Nobody knows where it is going. There are overruns every year and the HSE is focusing on the Marie Flemings of this world to gather up a few shillings, while the salaries of hospital chief executive officers are being topped up with money from charities. There will be an amendment to the Order of Business every day until there is clarity and progress on this issue. Two and a half years in, this level of incompetence would not be tolerated of a committee in a town or a council and it should not be by a Government of one Department that has control of a large number of tax dollars.