Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague for the chance to say a few words.

I know by the motion that those who put it down understand that the Minister will try to tackle this because most of the stuff to which they refer is decisions made in 2008, 2009 and 2010 - all before his time. I accept all those decisions have made an impact and need to be addressed, but it is a bit unfair of them to state that the FairCare health reform document is in chaos. It is not really helping the debate.

For once, a potential Minister in a general election set out a seven year plus plan to fix the health services and did not promise a massive quick fix. He did not promise everything would be fixed in six, seven or eight months, but put forward a plan for once that could fix this over seven years, and he will stand by that.

As one who in opposition criticised my party's health spokesperson and ask him the detail of this document, and kept an eye on him over this document asking could it work, etc., in fairness, now that he is in office, he is implementing it. As someone who spent years looking at that document that he prepared over a couple of years based on the Dutch model but adapted to suit the Irish model, I have no doubt it will work. However, it will not work by Christmas, or even Christmas 12 months. Probably, it will take the seven years, but I am confident it will work.

The reason I am confident is because it was phased, and phase one clearly set out setting up the special delivery unit, which is in place since May and is working. I accept it is not working in every hospital, because it is not in every hospital and it cannot be. However, it is getting there. It has already recommended changes to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital which will solve or help the problem there. In other areas, it has been very successful. That is a start. They now have a plan to tackle the problem in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in my constituency, and in Navan hospital. There has been overcrowding there for years and no-one ever said he or she would fix it. This Minister will fix it. I, like the Deputies who proposed the motion, wish it happened yesterday. It did not happen yesterday, but it will get there.

In that regard, the special delivery unit is the way to go where one goes to a place, clears the obstacles out of the way like one does in any business, fixes it, and gets the waiting lists and waiting times down. That will happen because the hospital in my area is suffering like every other hospital.

The Minister gave a commitment that he would bring back surgery to the hospital in Navan. It is not yet back, but that is not his fault. The motion is in place, the HSE agrees with it and it is now down to sorting it out between the staff and the HSE, but surgery is on its way back as promised.

On accident and emergency, the Minister stood in front of a number of people and stated that department would not be there forever. It does not make good health sense, and even some financial sense, but he admitted to everybody that it would not be there forever. However, it will be there until we sort out some of the overcrowding problems in the neighbouring hospitals. People accepted that. General practitioners accepted that it makes sense, maybe at some stage, to remove that service.

See this speech in context