Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)

——west Dublin where there is no incentive for GPs to provide these services.

I have been diverted from my point. I wish to underline the necessity and the importance of putting the patient back at the centre of care and at the centre of the service.

I refer to the nine to five service operating in many hospitals. Medical care cannot be delivered on a nine to five basis and both Professor Drumm and the Tánaiste are trying to change this. I acknowledge that anybody providing a service outside the normal hours should be properly recompensed and that is not a problem for anybody. It is a question of rostering. People in the health service must recognise that 24-hour rostering is essential because services cannot be closed down at 5 p.m.

The recent Tribal Secta Global Management report cited the request for an extra CT scanner in either Wexford or Galway — I am not sure which. The request was made because the existing CT scanner was not used after 5 p.m. This is nonsense. I know that CT scanners are very costly and, therefore, the country should be getting more than a nine to five service from these machines. As Professor Drumm stated to the committee, these are the things we must do. He said we have paid for a service and we need to ensure it is delivered.

I do not think the Tánaiste thought it was going to be easy to deliver an improved health service. Deputy Moloney referred to the fact that she might have been grateful for a certain amount of help from Members of this Parliament. I acknowledge it is the job of the Opposition and of all of us to be representatives of the people and we must highlight problems when they exist. However, we should not make political causes out of all of them.

We need to be careful of what we say this side of a general election because if we find ourselves on the other side subsequently, we will not automatically start decrying the health services——

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