I welcome back the Leader and my colleagues. I look forward to an effective and productive session in the Seanad.

The recess has not done the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, any good. What I was most disgusted about during the recess was the fact that the Government used it to make savage cuts to intellectual and disability services. For example, St. Michael's House serves more than 1,600 young men and women and children in the north east. In August, the Minister announced a cut of €1 million to its services, backdated to 1 July. Respite care has been cut, which means that no staff overtime is available and there will be no new day services. People will need to be returned from respite care to their families. They are the people most in need of services. This is ironic, given that I listened to the Minister's comments on the health budget yesterday when he stated that he was not too concerned about being a couple of euro over it. He has proved not to be efficient with his personal finances, but he has also proved year on year that he is not able to manage the health budget. One day before the Christmas recess last year, he ran into the House late in the evening and sought an additional €300 million for the health service. At the time and again this year, we stated that his budget did not stack up and was a fantasy. This year, there will be a further major job overrun. To what does the Minister assign blame and what is the reason for it?

He says there are serious demographic issues and old people get sick. Therefore, is it their fault that the health budget is over-running? Is it their fault that young people in St. Michael's House will not now receive the services they deserve? Is it the fault of the elderly that the Minister and the Government have cut the respite care grant by 30%? We now have a whole new narrative whereby the Minister, like the hurler on the ditch, is blaming the service users for the fact that he cannot manage his budget.

That is not what he said.

This is the third year in a row that this situation has arisen. When the Minister was Opposition health spokesperson for Fine Gael, the only thing one would have thought was wrong with the health service was the fact that he was not in charge of it. It is patently obvious now that one of the main problems with the health service is the fact that the Minister is in charge of the Department of Health. He has questions to answer specifically concerning services for children and young adults with severe physical and mental disabilities.

I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business requesting the Minister for Health to attend the House to make a statement on the cuts to those services for children and young adults which were announced by his Department back in August and which were backdated to July. It was said that he would make a public statement - which he has not bothered to do - during the summer recess. Now that we are back, the Seanad will afford him an opportunity to do so. My party will afford him an opportunity to attend the House for one hour to explain why he considers it is appropriate that children and young adults should suffer because of his mismanagement of the Department of Health.