Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The "Prime Time Investigates" programme exposed once again what is probably the greatest scandal of modern Ireland, that is, the growing numbers of people who have to brush with death rather than go into accident and emergency units. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we have failed to provide even basic health care for our people, especially the old and vulnerable. Eileen Reilly said she would sooner die than go back into an accident and emergency department. The late Jimmy Kerry asked his family why he was on a trolley when he would be better off at home where he had a bed. Marie Kilkenny said she wished she would never have to go near an accident and emergency department again and the late Robert Hamilton, as the Tánaiste will know, refused to go into an accident and emergency department. This time, this hard-working man kept his dignity and was staying at home.

The fact is these people worked all their lives to build up this economy but their experience, stories and, in some cases, deaths prove how the Government has failed to use the wealth they created and generated to deliver a proper accident and emergency service to look after them. Some €60 billion has been spent to deliver a lack of privacy, sensitive information discussed in overcrowded conditions, intimate procedures carried out in full view of patients and their visitors, and dangerously overcrowded conditions which have turned our hospitals from sources of healing to sources of infection.

The real scandal is that this is not a new crisis because four years ago the Government did an analysis on what was needed to fix the then crisis so. There can be no shock-horror now. After nine years in power and three different Ministers for Health and Children, a Tánaiste and €60 billion later, the Government has failed to deliver, look after our most vulnerable, invest in the beds we need and invest in developing proper primary care which is the key to a good health service. Last night's "Prime Time Investigates" programme sums up the Government's story so far: plenty of promises, no delivery, quick to blame and slow to shame. When the Taoiseach saw that programme, as Head of Government, Taoiseach of Ireland and Leader of the Government for nine years, was he not ashamed this could happen in this country in 2006?

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