Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Today the PPARS scandal is running at €186 million and counting. This €186 million is a spectacular achievement of waste by any standard but we should not be too surprised. The Progressive Democrats, after all, is the party that gets things done. We should look at a few things it has not done. I refer to neurosurgery where the computers used to guide brain operations keep crashing and where for lack of money the equipment has not been replaced for years. It is a case of PPARS, €186 million, neurosurgery, nil. We are talking about men and women with bleeds to the brain, brain tumours, aneurysms, brain injury following accidents, severely debilitating diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Ireland is the only country in Europe that does not provide brain stimulation for people living with Parkinson's. Seconds count in all of these conditions. General practitioners will say it is not just access to neurosurgery and neurology services that are years too late and often do not exist at all. The GP in County Wexford was promised an appointment in three weeks for a woman with epilepsy but was still waiting after three years. It is not just the patients and their families who are at breaking point; it is the state of neurosurgery itself which is now catastrophic.

Mr. Chris Pidgeon says the service is on the verge of collapse, that there is a shortage of consultants, a shortage of beds and that crucial equipment is out of date and regularly breaks down. He believes the state of neurosurgery is worse now than it was 30 years ago. In September 2005, there were 426 people waiting for surgery in Beaumont Hospital, more than half of that number had waited for a year. I remind the Tánaiste of the promise to end waiting lists in two years. I ask the Tánaiste to inform the House — on second thoughts, I ask the Tánaiste not to tell the Dáil because he treats this House with derision and contempt anyway; he should tell the camera because he loves the camera. He should, through the camera lens, tell the people waiting for neurosurgery treatment what his Government has done in the past ten years to deal with this problem.

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