Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The availability of senior medical staff in emergency medicine departments should facilitate rapid clinical decision-making, enhanced management, diagnosis and treatment of patients.

With regard to primary care, emergency medicine departments sometimes have to deal with injuries and conditions which are more appropriate to a primary care setting. Government support for the development of general practitioner out-of-hours co-operatives on a national basis for the period 1997 to 2003 amounted to €46.5 million. In time, these co-ops can be developed to provide a much wider range of services to ensure that communities, irrespective of size and distance from major urban centres, enjoy appropriate access to primary care services. That has been a significant achievement in a very short period of time and it has been a very significant investment. The Government is well on the road to completing that over the next two years.

I have demonstrated to the House this evening that this Government has achieved significant reductions in waiting times, particularly for those waiting longest for admission to hospital for treatment; it has made significant progress in meeting the health strategy target of no patient waiting more than three months for elective treatment; it continues to keep the focus on waiting times for public patients through the operation of the national treatment purchase fund; it has been instrumental in providing the necessary investment that has resulted in unprecedented levels of acute hospital activity; it continues to ensure that patient access to appropriate care and treatment remains at the centre of health policy.

The Opposition's approach is to promise everything but never to provide a framework within which anything can be achieved. Much hypocrisy which has been heard tonight — for example, the criticism of the over-70s deal, despite the fact that the Deputies opposite welcomed it and voted for it in the lobbies of this House.

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