Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister, Ms Magahy and the officials and wish them well in the task they are undertaking. They need all the luck and assistance in the world. The structures that are now emerging are not exactly my first choice because the question that comes up all the time is whether the HSE is the appropriate structure to evenly deliver throughout the country the services that are required. I still hold that view although I note the implementation group has a minor version of what I had in mind, and hopefully it will work.

The population of the country has increased significantly in the past ten or 12 years, and it will increase more. It is double what it was in the early 1960s and that should be taken into account. If we rely on community care and primary care systems, we need to know whether we have the capacity and capability to do the job that is required at that level. However, we have not yet found out if that is the case because it has not been identified if we have that capacity. We do not know whether we are making the best use of the available resources, such as theatres, consultants and so on. This will not happen unless services are delivered around the clock. People do not get ill from Monday to Friday only. The problem is serious and unless we do something about this issue, it will worsen.

I am glad to see the bed shortage issue is being addressed. Various people have stated repeatedly before different committees of which I have been a member, including this one, that we have too many beds. We still hear this argument from time to time. I am glad it has finally been recognised that we need to have sufficient beds and accommodation and we need to ensure patients are not parked on trolleys around corridors, which creates a health and safety issue for patients, staff and everyone else. We also need to compare our costs and expenditure with those of other OECD countries. There is no use spending more on average than everyone else while delivering less. We must deliver on a par with our competitors. Otherwise, we have a problem.

There are specific areas where treatment has been lacking in recent times. Scoliosis is one case in point. I cannot understand how it took a survey by RTÉ to identify the extent of the problem and its most acute aspects. That should not happen. If the system had been vigilant, internally capable and doing the job it is supposed to do, we should have seen the problem long before we reached that stage. We need to be able to deliver services in a much sharper fashion for children and other patients on waiting lists who have acute problems. There are countries that do that with fewer facilities than we have. Will the Chair please tell me when I my time is up?