Mr. John Connaghan:

We need to take account of local situations when assessing the provision of healthcare services throughout the country. We heard this morning that the service is fine in some parts of the country but not in others and we fully acknowledge and were aware of that. As part of the annual planning of the budget and service plan for the following year we consider what investment or change is needed in each local area. Those requirements are addressed in the national service plan in terms of targets for the activity we want to see and the expenditure to be provided to that end, as referred to by Deputy Catherine Murphy. The national service plan is clear on what we wish to achieve. The reality is that those plans are sometimes not realised because of issues such as staffing, additional demand or a significant historical backlog. We fully recognise the variability in services across the land and that we need to do something about that.