Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and wish to be associated with the remarks made by the Cathaoirleach. I will try to deal with the recurring fundamental issues that have dogged the health services for the past number of years. There are underlying reasons but that does not mean that we must not try to tackle them in the shortest possible time.

On the main issue of waiting lists and capacity in hospitals in general and in accident and emergency units all over the country, and the absence of problems in some hospitals and accident and emergency units, to what extent have the fundamentals that arise on a yearly basis and particularly culminate in the creation of a winter plan to deal with them but not before alarms bells have rung been examined? For both employees in the health services and patients who await attention, confidence in the system has been triggered at that stage and not in a positive way. Is there now the ability to put in place whatever is necessary to contain the issues that repeatedly occur? I do not want to repeat the list of issues because we all know what they are in terms of access, capacity and accident and emergency units. My question is for Mr. Gloster and Mr. Watt.