Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Today, we learned that the equipment in Portlaoise hospital is 15 years old. A leading radiologist said on radio this morning that the radiology equipment in half of this country's hospitals is also 15 years old. How many Ministers are driving around in 15 year-old cars and how many Departments rely on 15 year-old computer equipment? If that is not good enough for the Government, why is it good enough to scan women for breast cancer?

While we were discussing the issue in this House yesterday, Professor John Crown was speaking on the radio, where he described the Government's approach to health services as insane.

He said the Government is presiding over an apartheid system and that its policy appears to be to make public health care as unattractive as possible. He added that the Government has an attitude to public health care which is like its attitude to the dole — it despises it — and that the Government is being hypocritical in closing public facilities on the grounds that they are too small while opening private facilities that are even smaller.

Professor Maurice Nelligan yesterday at a conference said it is immoral and wrong to run down small hospitals without having in place the promised centres of excellence.

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