Dr. Peadar Gilligan:

That is a very good question. It is one I have posed to many economists. If we consider the facts, we have fewer specialists, general practitioners and hospital beds per capitaof population than most other OECD countries. We have a difficulty with regard to the strategic spend on health. What I mean by that specifically is the Government allocation. When we talk of the per capitaexpenditure on heath, we are talking of the money allocated by Government, the out-of-pocket payments that patients make and the insurance. The only element of that over which we have real strategic control as a country is the Government spend. That component of the spend needs to increase in order that we can have the hospital beds, the specialists and general practitioners that our patients need.