Seanad report:Liam Twomey (FG) said he had been told that Dr Ann O'Doherty had raised concerns about the ability of the doctor at the centre of the Portlaoise crisis to run the service there, but she had been overruled by the HSE.
He understood Dr O'Doherty had raised concerns when the other doctor was being interviewed. If this was true it meant that the HSE, in going ahead with the appointment, had ignored the expert opinion of Dr O'Doherty. He asked Seanad leader Donie Cassidy to see if this information could be verified.
Mr Cassidy said they had heard that Minister for Health Mary Harney could not find out the up- to-date and minute information in her own portfolio and her own department. He believed all fair-minded people would have to say that the buck stopped somewhere. They would have to have the Minister back to the House to tell them what the up-to-date position was.
Joe O'Toole (Ind) said he would not support a motion of no confidence in the Minister because he did not believe it would achieve anything.
Frances Fitzgerald, Fine Gael leader in the House, said it was not any lack of support from the Opposition that had led to the problems in the health services. If the Minister wanted to put patients first, she would first have to know what was going on in these services.
Significant extra payments should be considered for senators who performed specific roles in the House, Seanad leader Donie Cassidy said. The calibre of the people being asked to perform the duties of the Upper House would have to be seriously rewarded. "No one does nothing for nothing nowadays. I am saying this on behalf of other members rather than myself."
Remuneration for everyone assisting the Seanad, including all the party and group leaders and the whips, would have to be looked at in terms of the number of hours they were working, added Mr Cassidy, who was speaking on a motion dealing with Seanad reform.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley said he believed reform of the House should focus initially on widening the third-level franchise, an area he would be anxious to progress. Current arrangements excluded graduates of the vast majority of third-level institutions despite the fact a constitutional amendment had been passed almost 30 years ago to broaden the scope of the franchise beyond TCD and NUI to other institutions of higher education.
Jim Walsh (FF) suggested that 10 senators from the North be elected by councillors there in the same way most senators were elected in the South.
He had spoken with politicians on both sides of the community in the North and they would welcome a system that would enable that to happen.