Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It was also bound up with a considerable number of vested interests that have clung barnacle-like to this rock down the years.

I welcome Deputy Ó Caoláin's intervention in the respect that he offered support to the Government in the difficult negotiations we must embark on with the senior branch of the medical profession. On the issue of Monaghan Hospital, I assure the Deputy that the Government's announcement on it has received a broad welcome within the medical community involved. We will work to address the issue.

The Government is committed to implementing fundamental reform in the health service. The essential elements of that programme are improved patient care, better organisation and improved delivery. I accept that some of the points made by Independent Deputies are well made and constructive.

The reform programme will progress in tandem with further investment in our health services. Evidence of this is the recent announcement of the additional €85 million allocated for the opening of new facilities in hospitals. These facilities include: new accident and emergency departments at Cork University Hospital, Naas General Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital; a new surgical block, an intensive care unit, operating theatres and an accident and emergency department at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown; two new operating theatres at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, two at Limerick Regional Hospital and at South Tipperary Hospital, Clonmel, for which Deputy Healy has called many times——

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