Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

However, the Deputy cannot assert that all those things are true while acknowledging all the staff are great.

On the antenatal outpatient clinic at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, the HSE has confirmed that, because of the increased number of births therein, it has been very hard pressed to get the waiting list in line. There is no doubt that this is a real problem and I will not defend the fact that people are waiting for 20 weeks, if they are doing so. The HSE said it has a problem related to people having to wait a number of weeks for a routine appointment and this is certainly not good enough.

Management at the hospital already said it is trying to address these issues and that it has recently approved 22 new midwife posts, two specialist nurse posts and three new consultant anaesthetist posts with a view to improving its services. It has also confirmed that a new 25-bay emergency department is being developed at the hospital and it is to be opened early next year. Two new floors are also being built above the emergency department to provide more space. Obviously these are needed and the resources have been provided therein.

We are spending almost €500 million on the capital programme this year, as we have done in the past few years. Ireland and Norway are on top of the list of countries investing money in the capital programmes pertaining to their health systems. Obviously our system needs this investment and there is no doubt about this.

I have answered the Deputy's question on accident and emergency figures. The accident and emergency figures continue to be well over 50% down, as they have been the whole winter. We are now in what we consider the 24th week of the winter and there was one difficult week in which reductions of over 50% were not achieved. Even Deputy Kenny, from his position, will have to acknowledge this represents a big improvement in a year. It is still not good enough and that is why we are investing the resources I have outlined. I hope a big improvement will be made over the next year when all the facilities come on line. The Government continues to put in place the resources and staff and continues to make the necessary improvements and seek reform. This is the correct approach.

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