Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

No questions are being answered in this House and nobody is accepting political responsibility for the problems about which we are speaking. It has suddenly dawned on the Government after nine years that this is a national emergency. The Tánaiste's statement yesterday was not driven by political sympathy for patients who are lying on trolleys today and every day, but by political desperation. The Government knows that the people are waiting for the members of its parties when they next seek their support. It has failed to use this country's unprecedented wealth and resources to provide proper services for the people. As they say in the medical profession, the Government is "TATT"— tired all the time.

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