I call for a debate on health care. The Leader arranged for a debate a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that was only 45 minutes long and it was not sufficient to critique the Government's failed health service plan and policies. Even top officials in the HSE over the weekend were talking about a lack of vision, a lack of resources and a lack of capacity. We saw from the now-averted nurses' strike that we have very real problems on the front line in the health service. None of that happened by accident. It happened through five budgets supported by all the Members on the Government benches who took money and capacity out of the health services. Hospitals, primary care, mental health services and supports for people with disabilities were all stripped of resources and hacked away at in the past five years.

Today, Sinn Féin launched its Better for Health policy document, which is the first time any party has set out a costed plan for universal health care. Obviously during the course of the election campaign, we will go toe-to-toe with the Government parties and others on that. The Government has now abandoned its policy of universal health insurance, and very senior officials in the HSE are now saying what many of us in the Opposition had been saying for a long time, namely, that the Government and the country is rudderless when it comes to health care and that there is no leadership coming from the Government, the Minister or the Department. It is very serious and is having an impact on patient care. The crisis has driven up waiting times in many specialties, including in Waterford, the Leader's own area, where key services, such as opthalmology, ENT and others, are at crisis point. People are waiting two years and more to see an orthopaedic consultant. That is the direct outworking of the failed policies of this Government and the five budgets the Leader and his colleagues supported over the past five years. I call for a debate on these issues

Sinn Féin will lower the salaries.

If the Leader supports the debate, we can debate all these issues. Shouting back across the Chamber will not achieve anything.

Sinn Féin will lower the salaries.

We should have a constructive debate-----

Address the Chair.

-----and we should allow people then to have their say. Obviously during the election campaign, that will happen, but there is a crisis now that needs to be dealt with.

The 45-minute debate we had a couple of weeks ago was insufficient to deal with the real crisis we face.

I would love to have a debate on health with Sinn Féin, which does not want anyone in the health service to be paid more than €100,000 at a time when one of the biggest problems in the health service is the difficulty recruiting consultants..

That is not our policy. The Senator must not have read our policy.

The policy of the Senator's party is that it wants to cut salaries.

The Senator is wrong.

The Senator's party might clarify its salary position-----

We have done that.

-----before it starts mouthing off about what it will do. Sinn Féin has made out that consultants are being paid too much. We have a big challenge in this country with the recruitment of medical staff. One of the challenges we are going to have to face in the next four or five years is the appropriate remuneration for people who have worked to get to the grade they are in and who can provide the expertise that is required in areas like orthopaedics and ear, nose and throat. The whole transplant area is of particular concern. Approximately 150 kidney transplants are done in this country each year, whereas more than 300 such procedures are done annually in Norway, which has a similar population. The reason for this discrepancy is that we cannot get the consultants we require to provide the service we want to provide.

I want to speak about last week's incident when two Members of the Oireachtas were conveyed to Limerick Prison to avoid having to pay fines. It is important to outline for the public that the attachment of earnings legislation comes into place on 11 January next. The day when those who fail to pay the fines imposed on them for committing crimes are carted off to prison will be behind us from that date because the courts will have the power to make an order to have the payment come from the earnings of such people. This is a welcome development, particularly at a time when over 50% of those admitted to our prisons are admitted for non-payment of fines. Approximately 89,000 warrants are with the Garda to be executed for non-payment of fines. We should have implemented this significant change a long time ago. I am delighted this measure is coming into place on 11 January next. Members of the Oireachtas who want to break the law from now on have to realise that the fines imposed on them will be taken from their earnings. This will prevent the time of the Garda, the Irish Prison Service and the Courts Service from being wasted as it was last week. It is a welcome development. We will see it put in place on 11 January.

I second the proposal on the Order of Business that has been made by Senator Paschal Mooney.

I do not think the Minister for Health is doing his job. He has been a complete failure since he was appointed. I know he was put in there to bury his political ambition to become the leader of Fine Gael. The Taoiseach's decision to appoint him to the Department for Health has been very successful from that perspective because he has proven to be a complete and utter disaster in that role. This was evident once again last night when it was decided to postpone elective surgery that was due to take place today. People were waiting and ready to have their operations, but they were all cancelled because the HSE and the Minister would not make an agreement with Liam Doran and the nurses. They subsequently got a great deal, and now there are claims coming in. I heard Mr. Bell of SIPTU on the radio today saying that the ambulance drivers, attendants, doctors and everyone else he represents who is involved in accident and emergency all want whatever the nurses are getting.

I will put this into context. The former Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, and the Taoiseach closed the accident and emergency unit at Roscommon acute general hospital. If that unit were available now - it was very successful when it was open - it would take pressure off Galway. Its closure is one of the greatest failures of the Government. The people of County Roscommon were lied to and betrayed by those who gave a commitment prior to the 2011 general election. The commitment in question resulted in the election of two Fine Gael Deputies in the Roscommon-South Leitrim constituency. Given the chaos that will ensue in the future in the whole hospital system, the Minister would be better engaged going to the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway and other such departments throughout the country to study what is happening on the ground and to see how things can be improved. There is no reason a patient who needs attention and immediate treatment cannot be brought directly to a bed in a hospital if a doctor feels that person should qualify. That is happening without going through the accident and emergency process in some hospitals where there is a relationship between the consultants and the general practitioners.

This is an old system which needs to be changed but the Minister will certainly not change anything. It is a complete failure on his part to have allowed the strike to be settled last night when so many people were waiting for surgery today. It is an absolute disaster and will lead to further damage to the health service.