James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

May I make one comment that I forgot to make? The issue of the number of consultants has been raised. I am aware of a report presented to me, which was out of date, which showed Ireland at the bottom of the list. In fact, in the Netherlands and Canada there are fewer obstetricians per head of population. They have developed new models of care, which is what we need to look at because it is not always about the number of doctors, nurses and the number of billions of euro spent. During a period of 12 to 14 years we saw a quadrupling of the health budget - I am not being political - which led to 569 patients being on trolleys on one day. We need to reform the system and look at the models of care in association and consultation with obstetricians and midwives to see how we can best deliver from what we all know is a very limited resource.