Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

On Thursday of this week, we will outline the Government's response to the report of the patient safety commission. The commission, which was chaired by Dr. Madden, included patient safety advocates and experts from Ireland and overseas. The commission's report has been published, and Deputies are aware that it recommends the establishment of a system of accreditation or licensing in our acute hospitals. It will take us some time to draft that legislation. Even if the legislation could be implemented in the morning, many of the acute hospital services we provide could not be licensed or implemented as they do not live up to the requisite patient safety standards. That is a fact in Ireland and globally. We have to prepare for the challenge of putting a licensing and accreditation system at the heart of our acute hospital service, so that it is fundamentally organised on the basis of patient safety and good outcomes. When we took similar steps in our cancer service, that was opposed too. I am delighted to say that the reorganisation of breast services is ahead of schedule and will be completed by April of this year. There is almost unanimous buy-in, although not total buy-in. People who were initially sceptical and concerned, as we often are when change takes place, have become enthusiastic fans of what we are doing in the cancer area. They know it will improve outcomes for patients.

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