Roscommon County Hospital has never been busier.

He could have died in the interim.

Will the Senator, please, conclude?

I am calling for the reopening of the emergency department. I will put it further-----

Ciúnas.

I call on the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, to put the gun to the Government's head and demand that the emergency department be reopened and if it brings down the Government, so be it. I would welcome it collapsing on the basis of his commitment. He voted to retain the emergency department in the hospital. Now he has an opportunity to say to the Taoiseach-----

The Senator's point has been well made.

-----"My vote will not be there anymore, unless I see the restoration of the emergency department in Roscommon, or I am resigning from this discredited Government. I do not care how long it lasts. If I get back the emergency department, so be it." He has to call for this to happen now.

That is a matter for the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, to decide.

It is very disappointing to hear an experienced Senator like Senator Terry Leyden use the health service as a political pawn. If he wants to talk about the history of politics and the state in which the country was left after the Government led by his party, he should mention that the then Minister for Health left not only the health service but also the economy in a terrible state. Whatever we say about the last Government, it was up to the mark in the oast five years in repairing the economy and putting funding back into the health service. If we look at the facts, Ireland has the second highest expenditure figure in health services among OECD countries. It is not just about funding. It is also about accountability. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister for Health to the House because we need political accountability. We also need administrative accountability for the manner in which funds are being spent in the health service. I point the finger of blame at the HSE which is not managing to the best of its ability the funding provided by the taxpayer to provide essential health services for communities. My colleague, Senator James Reilly, the former Minister for Health, was mentioned. In 2013 he reconfigured the acute hospital network, but the problem has been that four years down the road the governing boards of the hospitals have not been appointed. Without accountability structures, the HSE is not going to be held to account for the harrowing scenes we saw on "RTE Investigates" last night, about which we are all concerned and expressing our outrage. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister for Health to the House to explain why the hospital boards have still not been appointed to govern the hospital network that was reconfigured in 2013. Without accountability and governance structures, we are not going to see the improvements and efficiencies planned at the time. We all need to work together, across parties, if necessary, to ensure we will get to the fundamental problems in the health service because arguing about parochial issues, as our colleague, Senator Terry Leyden, has done, will not help to solve the problems. We need to stand up and be counted on a national level.