Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

This debate is long overdue. It is a shame that what happened yesterday had to occur to enable this debate to take place. Not enough time has been allocated to allow Members to speak about all the things that are wrong with the health service in counties Cork and Kerry. As Deputy Kelleher said, it seems that certain people do not want to hear a message of frustration, delay, procrastination and promises which have not been fulfilled. We need to take a serious look at what is happening. The Minister for Health and Children received a letter from a consultant in a very sensitive area. I am sure the man in question had more to do than write lengthy letters about matters of concern to him, but he felt compelled to write the letter I have mentioned nonetheless. He said in the letter that he has to treat his patients in conditions which are so bad that he was compelled to write a damning letter to the Minister, who did not respond other than to say that some aspects of the letter were factually incorrect. I do not think the letter was factually incorrect.

The manager of Cork University Hospital said on this evening's "Six One News" that a planning application for the BreastCheck facility at the hospital will be made early in the new year. That news will come as a surprise to some women in Cork who have been campaigning for the BreastCheck service to be rolled out there, because it was made clear to them in June of this year that the schedule that had to be met if BreastCheck was to be rolled out in 2007 would not be met if a planning application for BreastCheck was not made by October. The clear commitment to make the application by October so that the facility would be up and running by 2007 was made after a group of women in Cork, who are annoyed by the apartheid in Irish life that means the BreastCheck service is not available to them, picketed the annual general conference of the Progressive Democrats.

Will the Minister of State tell the House why the health of women in Leinster is more important that the health of women in Munster? It defies logic. The roll-out of the BreastCheck programme has been announced three times. The commencement date of 2007 was mentioned for the first time when the current Minister, Deputy Harney, took office. The women of Munster should bear in mind that the plans for the roll-out of the BreastCheck service are three months behind schedule.

I would like to tell the House why I was so annoyed yesterday. I spent all day Monday and most of Tuesday telephoning Cork University Hospital to try to get a bed for an extremely ill man who has been waiting for weeks to get a bed. His consultant said he should be given a bed, his wife was at her wit's end and his general practitioner was doing all he could, but they still needed to contact some politicians. One would not imagine that there would have been any difficulty, given that the man was at the top of the priority list, but he could not get a bed because there is a shortage of bed capacity in Cork University Hospital and the people in the accident and emergency department who were on trolleys needed to be cleared first. I learned just before I came to the House yesterday that the hospital authorities had found a bed for the man in question, for which great credit is due to them. The family of the man will always be grateful for their assistance. The success in that case is beside the point, however, because there are hundreds of similar cases throughout the country.

Ireland is the richest country in Europe, but it has the worst health service in Europe. The Minister for Health and Children continues to tell us it is not her responsibility, but it is very much her responsibility — that is what she gets paid for and what she is given the glory for. It is her job. I ask the Minister to get the finger out for the sake of the people waiting for beds, including those on trolleys, and especially the approximately 60 women who die every year in preventable circumstances. She needs to put in place the kind of health service that the people who created the Celtic tiger deserve and to which they are entitled.

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