Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I heard the consultant from Northern Ireland with my own ears last night. He said their superior performance was due to the existence of screening programmes, which do not exist in the health board areas we are talking about.

In his letter published yesterday Dr. O'Reilly said interviews for the post had been held but they failed to fill it because of the conditions. The Taoiseach trots out the line that whoever was there left for a better job. When Dr. Halligan failed to take up the HSE job, the Taoiseach spun the line that he wanted a job in England, which the media faithfully reported. There is only one consultant oncologist in this area. There is no point confusing it with nurses because the number of vacancies in nursing is 1,100 and rising.

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