James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I listened with interest to my esteemed Longford-Westmeath constituency colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, as she always tends to dispute comments made by previous speakers. This does not just happen in this House but also in constituency debates. She is a lady who seems to me at times to be out of touch with reality.

Figures for the waiting lists for the National Treatment Purchase Fund were published before Christmas. While I accept Deputy O'Rourke may not have read them, they showed 20,000 adults and children are on waiting lists with half waiting more than six months for treatment. These figures do not include patients waiting three months before they are entered on to the waiting list. When they are included, the figures double to 40,000 plus patients. How can Deputy O'Rourke explain these figures?

We do not take into account the estimated 200,000 patients waiting for outpatient appointments. Some of those patients are waiting up to seven years for appointments. That is a reality about which I hear on a daily basis in the constituency I share with Deputy Mary O'Rourke. She cannot be proud of that. It shows how much she is out of touch with reality in the constituency of Longford-Westmeath, the one she purports to represent. She must have got her inspiration from the former Taoiseach who is from that constituency, Mr. Albert Reynolds, who read only the first page of any document. Deputy O'Rourke has shown she does not read through all of the reports that have been presented by the Health Service Executive and others. Approximately 146 reports, some of which were produced by former health boards, are awaiting action. I am disappointed that a constituency colleague is so much out of touch with reality in the heartland of this country, the midlands, which has been denuded of health services in recent years.

Promises were made in the lead-up to the 2002 and 2004 elections. A total of €57 million was ring-fenced for the completion of phase 2 of Longford-Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar, the only acute hospital between Dublin and Sligo. However, that was never delivered upon because when Deputy O'Rourke's friend, Deputy Cowen, now Taoiseach, was Minister for Finance he put a stay on developments in the health service in Longford and Westmeath to the benefit of his own constituency, Laois-Offaly.

Deputy O'Rourke took her eye off the ball in the constituency she was elected to represent. She will not continue to hoodwink the people in my constituency, nor will Deputy Kelly. He has also taken his eye off the ball in the constituency. That is evident from the people of Longford and Westmeath whom I met protesting outside the gates of Leinster House who were with the Cystic Fibrosis Association, Irish Autism Action and the Carers Association. I wish those two Deputies, who also represent those people, had gone to meet them. Politics is all about listening to people and Fianna Fáil Deputies are not doing that at present. The sooner we give the people an opportunity to change the Government the better. I was listening to——

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