Health Minister David Ashford will no doubt be looking forward to today’s sitting of Tynwald, as damning reports into his department’s performance will be debated.

The failings of the Department of Health and Social Care, and what to do about them, have been documented in an independent report by Sir Jonathan Michael.

They were pre-empted by the sudden departures of the DHSC’s top two civil servants and will be debated in Tynwald today.

As if that isn’t enough, then the not particularly complimentary public accounts committee report into overspending at Noble’s Hospital is also down for debate.

To be fair to Mr Ashford, of course, the problems highlighted in both these reports date back a long way, including the days of his predecessors as ministers, who happen to include Liberal Vannin leader Kate Beecroft and some chap called Howard Quayle. The latter’s government career does not seem to have suffered much.

Mrs Beecroft’s time in government did not end so well, but that’s pretty much because she left with the imprint of Mr Quayle’s boot on her.

Mrs B, however, has other things on her mind as well for this week.

Following a fairly broad acknowledgement that the financial support available to patients and their carers when they need to stay in the UK for treatment is not all it should be, at a time when subsistence payments for public servants who need to travel to the UK for work purposes has gone up rather a lot, she has a rather pointed motion calling for the increases in public servants’ subsistence allowances to ’not apply to members of Tynwald until the accommodation allowances for patients and escorts cover reasonable costs that they incur’.

Before any of those items on the agenda, however, Tim Baker, chairman of the select committee on accommodation for young people, is due to make a statement.

Other matters to be covered include proposed increases in financial support for students, more regulations to deal with Europe and the inclusion of Archibald Knox on the Manx Patriots’ Roll of Honour.

With the Abortion Act becoming law, there are a number of regulations and Tynwald orders to be approved. The timing, with the Isle of Man having made great steps in a direction opposite to those taken by certain conservative states in America, is interesting and a reflection that, for the many faults in our parliamentarians that we rightly point out, this is a piece of history that reflects well upon them.

Meanwhile Daphne Caine (Garff) will hope to regain some of the thunder that has been appropriated by the government over her motion for declaring a climate change emergency. Mr Quayle declared such an emergency shortly after the Tynwald Order Paper, with her motion, was published.

Mr Quayle does not appear to have taken kindly to some remarks about the timing of his announcement. But hopefully there won’t be too much hot air produced in the chamber and everyone can move forward.

In the spirit of protecting the environment, we will not go through every single one of the 58 questions that have been tabled for this week’s sitting. The fact some of them are not very interesting makes that a fairly easy decision to make.

Funnily enough, the subjects raised include climate change and renewable energy, along with the medicinal use of cannabis, horse trams, planning and conservation issues, fly-tipping, grants for the Sefton Group, hedge cutting and wildlife habitats, the Post Office, housing, parking and bus travel - both here and by the ferry terminal in Liverpool.

That’s just the questions for oral answer. The written questions cover several of the same subjects, plus more health matters and what the timetable is for decommissioning Peel power station.

Alistair Ramsay writes about how politicians cannot help but meddle in the health service in his hard-hitting column in this week’s Isle of Man Examiner, which is in the shops now.