Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not go any further. The role of a board is to provide oversight. It is to ensure the functions of the board and the executive are carried out. It is the same as the role local authority members fulfil around the country. They are like board directors. I would like to see the Minister legislate for who he wants as members. He mentioned patient advocates. That should be put in writing. It might be a view the current Minister has, but a subsequent Minister might decide it is unnecessary. We are going through the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill now and the Minister for Justice and Equality has practically no say in who he can appoint to the commission because it is written and defined in the legislation. Another key issue is the Minister's role in relation to sub-committees, which are equally important. The audit committee is extremely important as it has to be sure about where money is allocated. Health funding will exceed €17 billion this year and that money should be spent on patients.

I ask the Minister about regional boards, which also play an important role. What connection will they have and how will they feed into the main board? Perhaps a main board member should sit on a regional board to ensure there is a direct line of communication from board to board rather than having the executive passing to regional boards hearsay as to what was said at a board meeting. That is important. Accountability is extremely important. While there is accountability to the Minister, board members should come before the health committee, not with the chief executive who sometimes prods and leads board members, but as the board itself, namely, in the persons of the chairman and a couple of members. Perhaps we can do something on that.

I will get a little parochial now. The Minister got a great deal of money yesterday and I would love to see some of it go to home care packages in my area. There are many people in hospital today who would be moved to their homes if home care packages were allocated. There are up to 700 people in my local CHO 7 waiting for packages. I ask for something to be done on that. I would like this money spent on home care, where it goes to the patient, rather than on the hiring of more staff. Senator Colm Burke referred to the taking on of 12,000 staff and noted that it might stun us if the percentage of those who were administrators was released.

This is a sound and robust Bill. If the matters I raise could be included, it would be even stronger. I thank the Minister and wish him the best of luck going forward with this.