Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the general question about a world-class health service, we have made real progress in the health service. We have over 100,000 dedicated professionals treating over 1 million patients in our public hospitals alone. There are 38,000 new staff, including 2,700 medical dental personnel and 9,000 nurses. Some 8,700 specialists were recruited in the past ten years and almost 1,000 consultant posts were created. Since I became Taoiseach, the numbers on hospital waiting lists have more than halved. In the past year, accident and emergency waiting lists have almost halved and, because of good practice and resources, 60% of hospitals have nobody at all waiting in accident and emergency units for more than six hours. The Irish taxpayer is funding the increase in spending from €4 billion to €15 billion, as Deputy Kenny correctly stated.

It is hard for Deputy Kenny to analyse the system on the basis of one letter and I could quote letters written by very satisfied people. I take the Deputy at his word regarding the letter he quoted, notwithstanding all the great staff. The letter stated nobody was cleaning or looking after the toilets, food or anything. The Deputy will be aware that there are several hundred staff in the hospital in question, employed at a cost of tens of millions of euro. Perhaps the day referred to was a bad day and the staff were elsewhere.

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