Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

I will start with the last point first. When two of the three major elective centres were announced just before Christmas, the Government also announced that a particular day surgery model which Tallaght operates, the Reeves Day Surgery Centre, would be considered for up to five other sites around the country. While the elective hospitals are a four to five year piece, those smaller day surgery sites are more an 18 to 24 month piece, generally speaking, so they are currently being worked on.

Regarding self referrals, yes it is the case that we encourage people, where practical, to access a GP first. Depending on how busy those services are, people may or may not be seen, so there will always be a certain number who come to accident and emergency departments without a GP referral. In fairness, there is a limited of number of people who come to our accident and emergency departments and only need two paracetamol. The key issue we are focusing on is people whose admission is delayed. Nobody in that category is likely to be admitted so in regard to people who need to be admitted to a bed, the question is whether we admit them in a way that does not involve a long wait in the accident and emergency department. Sorry, the Senator had one other question-----