Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I must tell the Deputy that we will not have the capital funding to do all the things we would love to do with our public hospitals. We have over 40 hospitals, many of which are very old. If we were establishing a health system today we would not have 40 hospitals but we do have that number of functioning hospitals and in the short to medium-term it is just not possible to provide the capital infrastructure to upgrade them to the standard we would like to see.

The recruitment of key personnel, such as pharmacists, microbiologists and infection-control nurses, and the major information awareness campaign in the public and private health system will greatly assist in this regard. Setting the target is a challenge in itself. I know Deputy Shatter takes the view that 30% is very low, but it is not. If we can reduce the incidence of MRSA and health care-acquired infections by one third over the next four years, it will be a major improvement. The United Kingdom set a similar target over a longer period. I would regard it as a satisfactory outcome if we can achieve that kind of improvement over that timeframe.

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