Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the matter on the Adjournment proposed by Senator Marie Moloney. I am glad she has raised this matter as I raised this very point in the House. In the north Dublin area there has been no funding for breast prosthesis since last June. Fifty-five women in north Dublin are waiting for breast prosthesis. I hope Senator Moloney gets a decent response from the Minister for Health because he has not responded to any of my queries on the matter.

I have raised the issue of the ongoing delay in the publication of the HSE service plan. I mentioned three weeks ago that I had a very strange, unsettling feeling that one of the reasons for this delay was that the Minister for Health would publish the HSE service plan when these Houses are in recess. As every week passes, it is my belief that this is what will happen. I ask the Leader if he has a publication date for the HSE service plan which is already with the Minister. Will the service plan be debated in these Houses before the Christmas recess? I ask the Leader to ask the Government to publish Tony O'Brien's letter to the Minister, Deputy Reilly, stating that the €113 million cuts in medical cards was unsustainable and against the advice of the HSE and the Department of Health. This is a seven page letter which is apparently private but it is all over the Sunday newspapers. If that is the case, this House and the other House should have sight of that letter. I ask the Leader if the Minister of Health will publish that letter.

Is the figure for medical card "probity", as the Government is putting it but a word I use loosely, €113 million, as confirmed by the Tánaiste and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, or will it be less, as intimated by the Taoiseach? Furthermore, is the figure for savings in health next year €666 million or is it more? These questions remain unanswered regardless of how often our health spokesperson, Senator MacSharry, and I raise them in the House.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business calling on the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, to attend the House for one hour to answer these questions. I will withdraw the amendment if the Leader has the answers, but I propose that the Minister attend the House for an hour's special debate on the HSE service plan and the savings figures.

If Senators are honest with themselves, none can say that the health service is not in meltdown. Senator Moloney has raised an Adjournment matter today, but we have all dealt with cases involving medical cards. I received a call from an individual yesterday who had cancer and whose medical card had been withdrawn. The health system is crumbling before our eyes and the Minister is incapable of dealing with it. As I am sure other colleagues are, I am happy to assist him in teasing out the points of the HSE service plan. If the Government publishes the plan while the Houses are in recess over the Christmas holidays, it will be seen as a stroke. The Minister is well used to strokes. That is why I do not trust him.