Minister for Rural Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív's strong criticisms of the Health Service Executive's (HSE)performance have met with considerable private support from Fianna Fáil backbenchers.
Yesterday, Mr Ó Cuív refused to back down from his HSE remarks, even though other Cabinet Ministers were clearly perplexed by his decision to repeat his attacks.
In an interview with Newstalk 106 late on Tuesday night, Mr Ó Cuív said he could not "make head nor tail of the HSE as an organisation", and it was "impossible" to deal with.
"I gave them some money out of a small fund I had to provide rural capital development . . . a number of years ago. I can't get them to tell me whether the buildings are finished. I understand that some of the buildings are finished and they can't provide invoices for me. I was willing to run another programme to subsidise them in providing further primary care in these areas and I can't get a list of work to do.
"So my experience day to day as a local constituency politician and as a Minister is that I just cannot make head nor tail of the HSE as an organisation," he said.
In a bid to downplay the controversy, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, speaking in the Dáil yesterday morning, said Mr Ó Cuív had pointed out "a few areas" where he believed the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs could help the HSE.
The Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, and the Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday met the chief executive of the HSE, Brendan Drumm, for a pre-arranged meeting of the Cabinet health sub-committee.
The HSE has rapidly become deeply unpopular with many politicians of all parties over the last year or so, with many TDs claiming they are not treated with respect by senior executives. Distancing herself from Mr Ó Cuív's remarks,
Ms Harney pointedly, however, said she fully supported and had confidence in the HSE. The general agreement shared by politicians of all hues with Mr Ó Cuív's remarks was illustrated by the decision of the Opposition not to attack him, particularly over the length of time it now takes to get answers from the health body.
Defending itself, the HSE said it put a very large amount of resources into answering politicians' questions, though it added that many questions covered individual and complicated cases that required time.
"We are very accountable to politicians. We work with politicians all over the country every day of the week. And we are accountable to the Dáil, through parliamentary questions and committee meetings," a HSE spokesman told The Irish Times.
Ms Harney has cast doubt on whether agreed reductions in nurses working hours can be implemented, if hospitals cannot cope with the current HSE recruitment ban. She said hospitals must operate within the budget allocated to them.