Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy O'Donnell for allowing me to contribute to this debate at the last minute. I make no apologies for saying my emphasis will be on the health services in the north east.

In the Dáil last Thursday, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, said the OECD report supported the line she had taken under the Teamwork report. She also said she was going on advice she received from Northern Ireland. I did not find that support for the Minister in the OECD report. The organisation was careful not to be too prescriptive but suggested there should be two centres of excellence in the north east. I read on Thursday in the agendaNI magazine that two new hospitals will be built in the coming years in Northern Ireland, at a cost of £450 million. One hospital will be in Enniskillen and the other in Omagh, despite the fact that there are excellent, high quality services in Derry and Craigavon. I urge that, even at this late stage, the Minister talk to health service personnel in Northern Ireland and, more importantly, to the people trying to run the system in the north east, in spite of misdirection by Teamwork and the executives.

The recent occurrences in Drogheda do not give much confidence to the people I represent. I agree fully with the suggestion in the report that there must be a more performance-centred approach.

I wish to put on the record of the House my disappointment that a solemn commitment given by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, to the national and international media to fund a dual carriageway from Derry to Dublin has already been broken by the Government, through the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, at a committee set up to oversee the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. We need proper planning, commitment and, above all, honesty.

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