Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand that when the Minister, Deputy Harris, announces his eight-point plan today, he will propose to scrap the HSE and start all over again. I welcome this news because I think we could go back to the old health boards.It is his intention to scrap the HSE and devolve the powers to local hospital groups and community groups. When we had the old health boards, there was a lot of accountability and people had local knowledge. Currently, the way the HSE is run is that it is a centrally based committee that is not working, because people do not know the actual issues in the hospitals in the local areas. I sat on one of those health committees for about a year when I was on the council. There was accountability. One could ask a question in advance and receive an answer that one could not question. There is a lot of reform needed in this area. The Minister is proposing to set up a much leaner national health agency. I know that he has a number of points in the plan. I think that having local groups responsible for their local hospitals and in return being responsible to a smaller and leaner committee will be the way for the future. I know that will be a long-term plan. The Minister is also proposing some changes to be brought to legislation as well to have more local accountability.