Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I am talking about centralisation and it is a centralising Bill. Instead of locating a section of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in Rossaveal, Howth, in my constituency, Castletownbere or one of the five national ports, it is located in Clonakilty. Other sections of the Department are located throughout the country. However, the Health Bill is an example of re-centralising. It tries to set out a simplified version of a national administration for a modern health service for 4 million people and to the extent it achieves this, I welcome it.

My major disappointment with the Bill is that there is not a more detailed section on information and health statistics. According to the health strategy, a separate board will provide us with basic information. However, the statistics available to our counterparts in the House of Commons enable them to know precisely, for example,cardiovascular death rates in any town in Britain, such as Manchester, which, although distinguished in other ways, has a terrible reputation in regard to health and is bottom of the league across a series of indices. We do not have access to such information and the Bill will not help to improve this. It will not help with regard to some of the fundamental problems in the Irish health services to which I referred. However, it may be a start in trying to achieve a more modern organisation and, to that extent, I welcome the Bill.

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