Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Tá Gaeilge ana mhaith ag an Cheann Comhairle.

This is breast cancer awareness month and it seems the Government hides behind the Health Service Executive as some remote agency which seems suddenly to implement Government policy without reference to the human cost. The health service was defined as being necessary to cure people and help when they needed health-based assistance, not just as an employment measure. I read the letter from Susie Long — God rest her — who was recently laid to rest, in which she described what she went through waiting seven months for a simple colonoscopy. There was another letter in the daily newspapers last Saturday with the description by a mother of how her child had gone through serious difficulties sitting on a hard chair in an accident and emergency unit all night.

It is three years since the Minister for Health and Children announced her famous plan to resolve the crisis in accident and emergency units but this is not much better, save in a few cases. There is no connection between what the Government says about having a world class health service and how it impacts on people and the reality expressed in communications to every Deputy, members of the Taoiseach's party included. Last week Navan hospital announced the closure of an orthopaedic ward for December. The response of the Minister for Health and Children was to say this was no big deal because only six operations were being cancelled. In fact, the number is likely to be 200.

We hear that there are home care packages available for everybody, yet the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dún Laoghaire cannot discharge patients because there are neither home care packages nor care available when needed. We hear the same story over and over from the Minister and her Government colleagues. The HSE is doing the Government's job but there is no connection between the reality of people's lives and what Ministers tell us. This was very different for Susie Long, for those who have been waiting for hip operations, and the children or elderly sitting on hard chairs in accident and emergency units. The response for breast cancer awareness month is to have a frenzy of decisions to close down treatment centres. No one can defend an inferior service but where services are available, they should not be taken away in the absence of a better alternative. How much further must we go before the world class health service of which the Taoiseach speaks is available?

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