Marking the ministers: The last in the short series in which Irish Times writers assess the performance of Government ministers. Beginning with the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin; the terms of Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Mr McDaid are today evaluated.

Minister for Health and Children, Micheál Martin

Track record

Micheál Martin has so far made his way adroitly through the minefield that is the health portfolio. He has been helped by incredible luck: by the time he came to the Department of Health and Children in January 2000, the bitter nurses' dispute was in the past and the bitter ASTI dispute was awaiting his successor, Michael Woods, at Martin's old job.

He has also had the good fortune to be Minister at a time when the Government has been willing to increase health spending hugely - though that willingness may now be at an end.

But it hasn't all been luck. He has won respect in the health services as an exceptionally well-briefed Minister who understands the details of how things work, or don't work.

His initiatives in relation to nurse education and to the recruitment of doctors have made a positive difference. Unfortunately, the public could not care less about such initiatives and it is likely that he is judged more harshly outside than inside the health services.

Lengthy queues in A&E departments and long - though falling - waiting-lists have left the public disenchanted with the health services.

Martin's work as Minister for Health and Children will make a real difference in the future, but not tomorrow or next week.

Main achievement

Martin's big achievement has been to lay down the strategy which will guide the development of health services for at least 10 years into the future. Future governments, of whatever hue, are unlikely to depart from the main outlines of this strategy. This will see thousands more beds in general hospitals and in community (health board) nursing homes. Outpatient departments and operating theatres will work longer hours and more consultants will be on the wards and in Accident and Emergency.

The strategy will also see nurses providing more medical treatment. Physically, hospitals will be upgraded.

Biggest failure

An inability, so far, to overcome the reluctance of the Minister for Finance to provide still more funding for his strategic measures. True, unprecedented sums of money have gone into health under this Government, but we are still only catching up after the cutbacks of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The launch of the national health strategy was marred by the revelation that there would be no expansion in the number of people qualifying for the medical card.Similarly, it has emerged that the Department of Finance has been pouring cold water on the plan to replace junior doctors with consultants in hospitals. Fortunately for Martin, people tend to blame McCreevy and not the charming Minister for Health and Children for this.

Prospects

There has to be a strong chance that Martin will be reappointed Minister for Health and Children after the next election. That Fianna Fáil will be in Government appears to be one of the safer bets around at the moment.

As for Martin himself, only the abduction by aliens of all adult Corkonians would prevent his re-election. Among the jobs which have a higher status than Health are Finance, Foreign Affairs and, well, Taoiseach. There is no indication that any of the incumbents are ready to hand over their jobs to Martin, yet.

His return to Health would be popular in the health services. The difficult bit is that he would then be expected to stop publishing strategies and start implementing them - which, of course, would mean a rematch with McCreevy.

Padraig O'Morain, Health and Children Correspondent

OPPOSITION PERFORMANCE

Fine Gael

Gay Mitchell

He once provoked the normally placid Bertie Ahern into describing him as a waffler in an angry Dáil outburst. Hard-working and combative, Mitchell can sometimes have a short fuse when dealing with his political opponents.

He is widely experienced and he has been successful in the Health portfolio, except in managing to land some effective political blows on the Teflon Minister.

Mitchell has a steady output of speeches and statements, and he is not afraid to be outspoken. Last month, he said that cannabis-based products should be made available for pain relief in the Republic as soon as Britain sanctions the use of the drug.

Labour

Liz McManus

She is expected to be a senior minister, perhaps in the health area, if Labour returns to power. She would be the front-runner to be Labour's first female leader should Ruairí Quinn step down if the party remains in opposition.

Articulate, outspoken and hard-working, she took a leading role in the abortion referendum, passionately arguing for a No vote.

Like Mitchell, she has argued that consideration should be given to the use of cannabis for people suffering from certain illnesses. Also like Mitchell, she has failed to land the kind of political blows on the Minister which could dent his Teflon image in a department his predecessor, Brian Cowen, described as "Angola".

Michael O'Regan, Parliamentary Reporter