James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and wish him well and will be as supportive as I can possibly be of him. I encourage him to pursue the issue of a patient safety authority urgently. It was to be advertised before I left office and then, suddenly, it all changed into something else. We still have no patient advocacy agency in this country, and we need one. I often said that I often felt when I was Minister for Health that I was actually the Minister for ill-health because it was all about disease, illness and sickness and there was no emphasis on keeping people well and encouraging men and others to go to see their doctors early when there is something wrong.

I will finish by wishing the Minister and the committee well but echoing very strongly the request of my colleague, Senator Burke, that there be Seanad involvement. We miss out hugely if we do not have that.