Delegates at Young Fine Gael event call for HSE head to quit

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny declined to either reject or support an emergency motion passed at Young Fine Gael's national conference, calling for the resignation of Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm.

Delegates at the conference in Maynooth at the weekend overwhelmingly supported the motion, which also called for the resignation of Minister for Health Mary Harney in light of the misdiagnosis of cancer patients at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

Speaking to reporters before he addressed the conference Mr Kenny, who has already called for Ms Harney's resignation, said in relation to Prof Drumm, he would wait and see the internal HSE report into the Portlaoise crisis.

"Young Fine Gael are perfectly entitled to adopt whatever motions they debate and decide on by vote here. I'd like to see the internal report by the HSE but I'm not going to be diverted from the central focus here. Government Ministers are now being paid €5,000 a week for overseeing incompetence," he said.

"I'll certainly wait to see what the internal report is like," but Mr Kenny added that Fine Gael would back the Labour Party motion in the Dáil tomorrow, of no confidence in Ms Harney, whom he described as incompetent and "removed from the people".

Some 200 delegates attended the conference where Jonathan Hoare, of the Cork North West branch, proposed the health motions. He said that almost 100 families were now facing the consequences of a recall for treatment. "Can you imagine the anger in each of those households?" Mr Hoare said. They felt they had no one they could blame, "but the Minister and Prof Drumm in this instance are responsible," he added.

He also criticised the HSE, where "there is one manager for every five workers".

The conference also heard that Fine Gael has to stop being conservative, politically correct and hypocritical in its policies. Trainee solicitor Barry Walsh (23), incoming president of Young Fine Gael, said the party had to modernise its views and culture.

He also said there should be no more heaves against the party leadership, there had been too many in the past. He was critical of the party's failure to "go for the jugular" in areas such as the economy in the election, and warned that the party could not expect government and political office to fall into its lap. He said there were "so many no-go areas and taboo issues Fine Gael is not willing to discuss". He referred to the failure to discuss the reintroduction of fees at third level.