James Bannon (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this Adjournment matter. As he is aware, there is a major democratic deficit in the delivery of health services in local areas since the abolition of the health boards. The provision of carers, home help, child care, etc., and the establishment of clinic appointments are being unduly delayed in a large number of areas. While heretofore, representations could be made to relevant members within a health board, this is no longer the case and one has great difficulty in gaining access to people.

Section 42 of the Health Act 2004 provides for the establishment of regional health forums engaging local elected county and city council members with the Health Service Executive. As I have stated previously, elected members were never a burden on the health service, but by tradition were the voice of the people and a first port of call for those who were lost and ignored in a bureaucratic system.

As Members are aware, the HSE took over responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services on a national basis on 1 January 2005 without any local input. Hence, the function of the regional health forums will be to make representations to the Health Service Executive on the range and operation of health and personal social services provided within their functional areas. Section 42(3) of the Act provides for members to be appointed to a regional health forum by the city and county councils in the forum's functional area. However, no specific details have been made available as to how many members will be appointed per local authority or whether membership will be drawn up on a per capita basis. If this was the case, it would place smaller counties like my native County Longford and others at a great disadvantage.

I am disappointed that since the health boards were abolished, communication has been at an all-time low and elected representatives have been left in the dark as regards the personnel within the HSE. I know from personal experience the number of representations with which a Member of the Oireachtas must deal and without the correct names to hand, it is extremely difficult to channel representations in the most relevant direction.

Hence, I call on the Minister of State to bring forward regulations to engage local elected members with the new HSE without further delay and to improve the flow of information reaching public representatives from the HSE. As the Minister of State is aware, this demand has been made by all the local authority representative associations over the summer months. They are disappointed that although the harvest has come and this House is on the eve of its mid-term break, nothing has happened to date. Perhaps the Minister of State will throw some positive light on the question as to when the forums for local elected representatives will be introduced.

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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I will take this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank Senator Bannon for raising the matter as it provides me with an opportunity to update this House on the proposals to establish the regional health forums.

As Members and councillors will be aware, the need for the involvement of public representatives and the users of health services was raised on a number of occasions during the debates on the Health Act 2004, both inside and outside the Oireachtas. The Government recognised the necessity for such involvement and in the Act provided for the establishment of a number of forums to involve both local public representatives and users of health services. These include the establishment of a national health consultative forum to advise the Minister for Health and Children on matters relating to the provision of health and personal social services, the establishment of regional health forums comprising representatives of city and county councils within the functional area of each forum and a provision to enable the Health Service Executive to establish advisory panels to involve the local community in decisions about the delivery of health services which affect them.

As Senator Bannon noted, section 42 of the Health Act 2004 provides for the establishment of not more than four regional health forums. The Act provides that membership of the forums will be based on nominations from city and county councils within the functional area of each forum. These forums will facilitate local representatives in raising issues of local concern in respect of health services within their region with the Health Service Executive. The Government will put these arrangements in place to ensure that the voice of local public representatives will continue to be heard with regard to the development of health services. These arrangements are designed to complement and reinforce the role of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in reflecting the views of public representatives in the ongoing oversight of the health services.

The regulations will specify the title of each forum and define its functional area, the number of members for each forum, the number of members from each city and county council to be nominated to each forum and the requirements relating to the manner in which the functions of a forum are to be performed. They will also set out the procedures for appointing members to a forum, the election of a chairperson and vice-chairperson of a forum, filling of casual vacancies, the meetings of a forum, the establishment of committees and the appointment of their members and ensuring the proper administration of each forum.

The Department has prepared a draft of the regulations and has been in consultation with the Health Service Executive on the provisions in the draft regulations. Following the completion of that consultation, the Tánaiste will consult with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the regulations, as required by the 2004 Act prior to making the regulations. It is her intention to complete these consultations quickly so as to have regulations made and the regional health forums established as soon as possible. The regulations establishing the forums will be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as they have been made.

The Tánaiste looks forward to having the regional health forums established as soon as possible so that local elected public representatives can make their views known to the Health Service Executive on issues relating to the range and operation of health and personal social services within the functional area of their regional health forum. I thank the Senator for raising the matter in the House.

James Bannon (Fine Gael)
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Could the Minister of State give me a timeframe?

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Soon.

James Bannon (Fine Gael)
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Will it be as soon as possible?

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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We will keep the Senator fully informed.