Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy raised two questions but I believe I answered the one on beds last week. In addition to the HSE's own beds, the number of beds contracted by it this year amounts to approximately 1,300. Some 360 beds are being made available through the private sector, including 220 in the greater Dublin area, 100 in the south and 40 in the western region. Another 1,050 have been taken from the other sectors. The plan of the Minister for Health and Children is to take approximately 1,000 beds out of "cohabiting" hospitals — private hospitals.

Progress is being made on all these issues, as I explained at some length last week. Deputy Kenny does not want to acknowledge the enormous increase in numbers successfully achieved through the winter initiative in the accident and emergency system. There has been a huge reduction in respect of the accident and emergency waiting list. In October, there was a reduction of over 30%, as was the case in November. In December and January, there were reductions of 50% and 57%, respectively. The time people have been waiting has reduced dramatically.

I know about the St. James's Hospital issue and what arose therefrom, as Deputy Kenny probably does also. I acknowledge the pressures on staff in hospitals at this time of the year and also the work they do.

We have invested enormously in cancer services. Many thousands more people have received cancer care. There have been over 40,000 more inpatient treatments and 55,000 more day care cases. The waiting lists for cancer treatment of all kinds have dramatically improved in the past decade. We have over 300 cancer specialist posts and we are building cancer services under the new cancer control strategy of last year, which was welcomed by everybody.

BreastCheck cancer screening does not represent the emergency cancer process, as Deputy Kenny should know. BreastCheck is being rolled out nationally. We are preparing a cervical screening programme, which is due to start later this year. There was no screening programme at all until a few years ago. We are investing in new cancer treatments and we have guaranteed capital funding, including PPP funding, of over €400 million for the radiotherapy network. The HSE will implement the programme over the coming years; it cannot be done all at once.

The new linear accelerators are being installed in St. Luke's hospital and new facilities are being built at Beaumont and St. James's Hospitals. Patients are being treated in Limerick, services will be offered in Waterford Hospital, which is linked to the private hospital in Waterford, and there is capacity in Cork and Galway. Patients in Donegal are being offered treatment in Belfast and there are also arrangements with Galway. All those services are in operation. I have no intention of saying during Leaders' Questions that if any hospital has a certain number of beds linked to anything, or to consultants, those beds should have a certain configuration.

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