Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am not suggesting there are not problems or difficulties because that has been written and reported on. What I am interested in is moving quickly, with Professor Keane and those working with him, to having units of large enough size which are resourced and staffed to do this job better than the fragmented services did. This applies to many other services, although we do not like to listen to that point. If we consider some of the reform programmes, we can see that we must do this but, as Professor Keane said, it requires political will by everybody to achieve it.

We have put in the extra resources, staff and consultants this year to try to achieve this. It is fully recognised that there are geographical difficulties in dealing with these issues but we must have a managed control network so that we move away from the problems that were created in the first place. We also need to improve management services between the centre and the regions. Professor Drumm has given a commitment that he will deal with these issues at the April board meeting. I support that.

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