Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

That is okay. We will read about it in The Irish Independent tomorrow.

The website in question is an effort on the Government's part to contrive some sort of a good news website and to put it in the best light possible. I was interested by an article on the site titled, Health Innovation - Tubridy Cuts Out the Waste. This Tubridy was not the Taoiseach's broadcasting friend but a consultant neurologist at St. Vincent's who claimed he cut waiting lists by 25% by the use of the HealthLink on-line service. While that is fine for the hospital in question, it only gives false hope to many other people because the service in question is not commonly used across the country. The critical story is not that this particular consultant has been able to reduce his waiting times by 25% for initial consultations; the real story is how many have to wait for them elsewhere.

It is questionable whether www.MerrionStreet.ie was required at all. While it probably will not take an enormous amount to maintain, I am more concerned about the promise made some time ago to secondary schools that IT equipment would be provided for every classroom. Some 15 months later, nothing has been provided.

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