Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Has An Agreed Programme for Government been renegotiated at any stage since it was promulgated? Can the Taoiseach be satisfied with the progress of implementation of the programme for Government given the spectacle on view last night in an excellent "Prime Time Investigates" television programme? Is he satisfied to be the Head of a Government which has stood idly by for nine years while the degradation and humiliation of older citizens, who have paid taxes all their lives, was presented in such circumstances as were on view last night?

A core commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government states clearly that: "We will expand public hospital beds in line with a programme to increase ... capacity by 3,000 during the period of the Strategy". Has that commitment been renegotiated? Is that no longer part of An Agreed Programme for Government? Is that no longer Government policy? Has the commitment to put 3,000 beds back into the system been dropped? Is it not true that the only conclusion one can draw from last night's "Prime Time Investigates" programme and the following programme is that we are now talking in a purely managerial context and that any reforms introduced will be purely concerned with management, deployment of resources and operation of the process?

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