Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

With the permission of the House I wish to share tonight's slot with Deputies Ó Caoláin and Ó Snodaigh and tomorrow night with Deputies Emmet Stagg and Mary Upton.

I congratulate the Fine Gael Party, in particular Deputy James Reilly, for tabling the motion on this very important issue. I wish to challenge the Minister, Deputy Harney, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, on some of the points they just made. The Minister constantly insists that, somehow or another, the Opposition is being political and she is not. That is far from the truth. The Minister stated that bringing three hospitals together will make savings and provide a solution to the problem and we are being political by focusing on the problem here and now.

When the HSE was being set up almost five years ago, the Minister used exactly the same arguments. She said that by bringing 11 health boards and a number of other organisations together there would be economies of scale. I went to the launch of a book today, "Irish Apartheid: Healthcare Inequality in Ireland" by Sara Burke. It debunks this absolutely. There is no point in the Minister smiling at me. She has an immense facility to debate, to retain facts and figures in her head and to stand up and repeat them but she tries to deny the right of the Opposition to make political arguments.

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