Mr. Mark Murphy:

I have the statistics for Europe and Ireland for the last number of years. The Spanish living transplant programme is greater than ours and growing far more rapidly. The Spanish have over 12,000 people on dialysis and complacency is not as much of a problem because the demand is so great and dialysis is so expensive. One sees that although it is not as consistent as we would like, over the past six years Ireland has been in the top ten in Europe with regard to the deceased donation process, although not for the living donation process, where we are lower. We are not awful and we are far from it. We can improve greatly and we have a willing population. For the past 24 years, awareness campaigns have been under the remit of the Minister for Health's allocation from the national lottery. We receive a quarter of what we used to get per annum. The lottery is not tax-based revenue and we have never got such money from the Exchequer.

If we compare it to 22 transplanting hospitals in the UK, Beaumont Hospital, for its size, does a great proportion of procedures. It is the only kidney transplanting hospital in Ireland, which is right, as it has great practice. Nevertheless, it is a very small hospital to do what it does in comparison to the hospitals in the UK. Infrastructure in intensive care units is a problem and the audit is absolutely necessary. Although we are not bad, we could be far better. I am not complacent and do not want to be accused of that. Those who know me realise that I am not complacent about this. We are in the top ten countries.