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

That is a classic Fianna Fáil tactic to digress from the topic on to something else.

The reality is that we have an ambulance service with extremely well-trained people and some very good equipment. We have invested in training, personnel and equipment and we will continue to do that. Should I go back to President Bill Clinton's comment? Is Deputy Kelleher's problem that it is taking me so long to clean up the mess his party left? We are working on this. The people in the service are working it. Mr. O'Brien and his staff, including Ms Laverne McGuinness, and Mr. Martin Dunne who is the head of the service are all working on this to improve it. It is not by any means where we would like it to be but we are making progress. I will let Mr. O'Brien and Ms McGuinness go into this in greater detail.

The same is true with our emergency departments. Of course there is still some overcrowding and I am not happy about it. However, I have to be realistic in what I ask of the staff who work in our service in terms of making the progress we have made. We have made huge progress at a time when we have reduced money and reduced staff. When we had loads of money and quadrupled out spend between 1997 and 2009, we ended up with the greatest mess ever in 2011 before the Government came into power.

I am asking people to be patient. I know it is difficult particularly when one's own loved one is sick, unwell or in danger and it can be very hard to have patience with the system. I think most people will acknowledge that in the main - not always, sadly - patients in our hospitals get excellent treatment, as good as anywhere in the world. When I was in America around St. Patrick's Day in order to promote the country and tourism and also to explore getting partners for our new hospital groups, I went to some of the top clinics in America and every one of them had Irish doctors and nurses, and they were right at the top. So we have the best people; we train them to the best standard and they rise to the top of the very best institutions in the world. I know some people will ask why we cannot keep more of them at home. That is why we have a review group looking at the workload and career prospects of non-consultant doctors to try to keep them here. I heard Deputy Ó Caoláin's comment about our nurses; we want to keep them here also.

However, all this takes time. In all these reforms as we peel back the layers we find more and more legacy issues to be dealt with. We will go through it until we get to the core and fix it. We will do so, particularly with universal health insurance in mind with the full involvement of the people who will have their say in how we shape our new health service.

In response to Senator van Turnhout, I will certainly ensure that the names of the oversight committee are made publicly available; that is a no-brainer. I will ask Mr. Pat Healy to comment on the New Directions policy not being mentioned. The Senator also spoke about pre-hospital emergency care and paramedics pronouncing death. It makes sense to me and I will ensure it is looked into. That is a very stressful time for everybody involved, particularly the families and it is not acceptable to have red-tape delay and may further impact on ambulance service performance.

I will ask Mr. Mulvany to address the question on the Children's Rights Alliance report card.