Page 3877 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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We will certainly be taking up the option of examining further members of the Board of Health staff who have appeared before the Estimates Committee. We have the prerogative of calling other people as well, and that would be one of the major roles of this committee. We will be taking the transcript of the Estimates Committee as a starting point and trying to use the information that came out of that. I might say that it is extremely difficult to gather anything from that process, because a great deal was left unsaid.
Mr Connolly: You should have asked the questions.
MR HUMPHRIES: It was left unsaid by the Minister, under repeated questioning. Sometimes questions were asked five or six times and still not answered.
Mr Berry: And the chairman said, "They have been answered. Shut up, Gary". That is what he said.
MR HUMPHRIES: I will give Mr Berry some examples so that he can see just how hollow his claims ring. Mr Berry doubted that he had ever been asked for the figures for the July monthly report on the hospital budget. I quote from page 1008, and this is only one of several references, I am sure, where I said:
Could we have the July report, while we are there?
The official, rather than the Minister, answered:
I would have to check what was available at that point in time.
We found out later that there was a report; it was in a different format. But the request is clearly there. It was for the July figures, and we have not had them yet. Here is the first example of an unanswered question, a request for information that has not been provided. Again, the Minister will find that he is not going to get away with this. We find it very hard to get anything out of this Minister. His stonewalling, not just in the Estimates Committee but in every question time, is disgraceful. It has been observed by other people, and I think it will not do him any credit.
There was a question on 9 October about activity levels in the hospitals. I have endless questions, page after page of questions, about what activity levels the Government expected for 1991-92. We just did not see any answers.
Mr Berry: What was that about?
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