James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Minister promised these wonderful centres of excellence some time in the future while simultaneously stripping existing services with immediate effect in 13 hospitals throughout the State. These cutbacks involved a reduction in breast cancer services in Galway from five days to three days per week, despite its being one of the designated regional centres of excellence which was to serve the same people from whom the existing services were stripped. This is a classic case of the Minister promising excellence tomorrow while taking away the services that deliver today. We are promised a nirvana that will never be reached.

The Minister denied she knew anything about the problem at Barrington's Hospital until the summer of 2007, but letters were passing back and forth between her Department and the HSE from January 2006. The Minister did not know about this, however, because she was otherwise engaged. Likewise, she denied knowing until August about the problems with the radiology service in Portlaoise, but a letter highlighting the difficulty was sent to her in July 2005.

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