Does this just show the state of our situation? What sort of a republic is it that the Government borrows €67 billion from the troika and then gives €64 billion to bad banks, meaning the citizens have to carry the burden they had no part creating? The Labour Party sits idly by while health services are cut even more.

The Deputy can talk.

There will be another €750 million in cuts next year. Last week, the Government gave €1 billion to unguaranteed bondholders. Hopefully, I am getting this point through to the Taoiseach. This is not just a failure of a Minister. If he went tomorrow, it would perhaps be good generally for morale. However, it would not make a blind bit of difference because the Minister is implementing the Government’s policy. This is a failure of Government policy. The folks in Fianna Fáil have much to answer for but it is on the Taoiseach’s watch that this is happening.

We can see the Department and the Government now closing ranks. Instead of closing ranks, will the Taoiseach accept he needs to bring forward a supplementary health budget? He has billions to pour into bad banks but no money for failing hospitals. If the Taoiseach can give billions to the bank, can he not provide a supplementary health budget? As I said earlier, the Taoiseach is a compassionate person and he knows the people who are suffering are the patients, the elderly and the vulnerable.

Does the Deputy just want us to spend more?

Will we tell the troika to go home? That will collapse the country.

I have just given Deputy Adams examples, as outlined by the director of financial services at Tallaght hospital this morning, of the changes made there to deal with a serious overrun and the decisions taken by the board and personnel to deliver a far more effective service for patients, the central focus of this process. I do not know if Deputy Adams still holds to his proposition to tell the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the European Central Bank, ECB, to take a hike. If Deputy Adams assumes the country will emerge from the economic challenges it faces by doing nothing, then he really does live in a fantasy land.

We want the Taoiseach to make good choices.

Deputy Adams should check the numbers.

We have to reform the structure of the way our health service is delivered for all our people. The Government has set out-----

To attack the vulnerable.

At the end of this Government’s period in office, we will have set out the determination for universal health insurance, a health service where money follows the patient and health care is given on the basis of medical need as distinct from a person’s income. This will not be easy. The measures which have been brought about by the Labour Relations Commission in changes to consultants’ pay for new entrants, rosters and so forth will pay serious dividends in the time ahead.

The outstanding moneys from insurance companies are coming through. The reform of drug prices is being negotiated and will reap positive benefits over the next several years. However, it cannot happen overnight. Our focus is when a patient needs care, that they get that care. We want that to be the very best level of attention.

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

The structure that used to be there did not work in the past. It will not work unless it is changed. That is what this Government is about here.

On the broader front, the Minister for Finance is working to implement the European Council decision of 29 June in respect of the benefit for this country and others of the break between sovereign and bank debt.

It is October now.

He is taking his time.

He is also working on negotiations with the ECB dealing with the wreckage left behind following the promissory note given by the previous Administration.