It was abundantly clear that there was no support around the Cabinet table for the Minister for Health, Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said when he called for an immediate debate on the health services,writes Seanad reporter Jimmy Walsh
Mr Martin had been swinging in the breeze for the last two weeks and none of his Government colleagues was coming to help him. What kind of image did that give, asked Mr O'Toole. What was the Government's policy, and where were we going to in all of this?
There were three substantial reports which could help them as legislators to understand what needed to be done at a time when ordinary people were worried sick about beds being closed and about cutbacks.
He did not know why the Government was hiding these reports. The real issue was that people did not understand what the future was going to be in the health services.
It was absolutely disgraceful that there was not an open and clear debate on this matter, Mr O'Toole said. It was important that the Minister be given an opportunity to have his say in the House.
"I do believe that we are being kept in the dark, and this mushroom policy at a time like this is just not acceptable. We need openness, we need honesty, we need information and we need some judgments so that we can move forward on this," he said.
Mr Shane Ross (Ind) said there was a financial crisis in the health service. "It would not be right, however, to have a debate in this House without recognising that if this can be resolved or alleviated by injecting money into the health service, we cannot ignore the fact that there is a potential source of this money, some of which members of this house are benefiting from.
I refer to the fact that a massive pay-out of benchmarking money will be made this month to all public servants, including members of this House.
"If people feel so strongly about the under-funding of the health service, I have yet to hear members of this House speaking up against this exorbitant payment.