Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tacaím leis an leasú atá molta ag mo chomhghleacaí, an Seanadóir Cullinane. I second Senator Cullinane's amendment that the Taoiseach be called in for a debate today. We are hoping that would be a two hour debate, at least. It is obvious that the Taoiseach is the puppet master pulling the strings on this issue. I do not think that people watching this debate today would be too impressed by the pantomime antics that are going on.

I wish to raise a different issue. Late last night we heard of the resignation of Mr. Noel Daly as the chair of the west north-west hospital group. It is something we called for last week. The Minister did not give us the full information regarding Mr. Daly's position as chair. It is quite obvious to us that there was a conflict of interest in the awarding of a contract, ostensibly to his own company. It is important that he did step down because there was a certain conflict of interest there. Mr. Daly's resignation also raises further questions that the Minister has to ask himself.

The Minister should attend this House to answer our questions. How was Mr. Daly appointed? Why was the Minister not more cognisant that there was a potential conflict of interest when appointing Mr. Daly to the board? Why was the public appointments process not used to appoint the chair of a board which manages seven hospitals and has a budget of hundreds of millions of euro?

Most important, the review of maternity services, which is where this debacle started, should be scrapped at this stage. It is quite obvious that it must be a tainted document if the procurement process was not undertaken properly. I also think that the board and CEO of the hospitals' group have questions to answer as to how they also colluded in the procurement of this document.

I am calling on the Leader to invite the Minister for Health to attend the House as soon as possible to answer these questions. This is another debacle on his watch. I think he should resign before the reshuffle in order that somebody can be put in there who might be able to make a better fist of the job.