Readers' blog: Health is in same boat 10 years on

Below is an extract from my letter published in the Irish Examiner in November 2007:

“A question that has to be asked is ‘Is the HSE a proactive body with an agenda of fixing problems or merely a consultant to the Department of Health simply pointing out obvious weaknesses in the health system’? In either case, to whom is the HSE answerable? Apparently not to Mary Harney, nor to Bertie Ahern who seem to rapidly pass over the pertinently pointed questions with short, offhand responses rather than standing up and taking responsibility for the debacle of a ‘health service’ over which they have jointly presided for over 10 years, and into which about 10% of the nation’s GDP is being invested.”