Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There was a very well known film called "Dead Man Walking". I get the sense that we have a dead man walking in the Cabinet having seen media reports on the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. It appears the backbenchers in Fine Gael are finally coming to the conclusion we came to many months ago, which is that it is time for the Minister to go having regard to the number of debacles he has had on his watch. It is a shame it has taken so long for the backbenchers to find their voices.

We should not wait for a reshuffle for the decision on the Minister to be made. We see debacles continuing. I call on the Leader to ask the Minister to clarify his relationship with the chair of the west-north-west hospital group in light of the fact that the report on the review of maternity services in the area was commissioned from a company of which that person owns 50%.

The Minister needs to clarify his own relationship with the person in question.

At the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions yesterday, we considered the report of the Ombudsman, Mr. Peter Tyndall, on medical cards. He raised alarming issues arising from the centralisation of the medical card process. He said it appeared that when the system was centralised the files relating to how decisions on discretionary medical cards were made disappeared, or went to a place where they could not be found. He has investigated a number of complaints about this issue on which the reports or files are not available, and he seems to indicate that this is a result of the centralisation process. He also raised the issue of the delay in replacing the mobility and motorised transport grant schemes, which the Government is reviewing. The grants were rescinded because the Ombudsman had highlighted an issue, but now he is concerned that people who need those grants have nothing available, and that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Will the Leader organise a debate on that issue? We also need to find out why the files on discretionary medical cards do not appear to have been centralised when the medical card system was centralised. It will be very difficult to review that system and to ensure that, if the Government is committed to returning medical cards to the people from whom they were taken, the decisions are based on proper information.