Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

——the House would complain about that. The Tánaiste has continued all this year to implement the ten-point plan for accident and emergency services. Most of those initiatives are well under way. All of them are assisting in improving accident and emergency services in hospitals throughout the country. An improvement is apparent in many accident and emergency departments in regard to infrastructure as well as staffing, consultant cover and nurses cover. I accept that problems remain in some of the accident and emergency departments. The Government, the Tánaiste and I are committed to working with the HSE and voluntary hospitals to try to improve those issues.

On the legislation to enable payment to those who are entitled to a refund of funding, we have given a commitment on that. The necessary process to get that system in order is under way. Legislation will be passed and we will make those payments as soon as possible.

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