Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

-----evening, it was being suggested that it would be necessary to close theatres and wards. That would be the job of the board of management and the management of the hospital. The board met on Monday evening and thankfully was in a position, with no changes to the budgetary arrangements, to make a decision that ensures that this in fact will not be the case.

I think that what the Minister for Health and Children is simply trying to outline is that an excellent service is being provided by that hospital. A reputation has been hard won and built up over many years. In the context of finite budgets, even in the context of this year's budget of a 3% reduction compared to last year, there is an increased level of activity in Crumlin hospital, which itself is confirmation that, through more efficiencies and more effective management of the resources, it is possible to increase throughput and output without generating the need for extra resources per se.

There will always be, in the context of any hospital or any health facility in the event of more resources being available, the possibility of more throughput and output in activity being able to be generated, but we have all agreed in the House for many years that it is only through service planning on a year-to-year basis that we can provide a sustainable health service. Working within those budgets, Crumlin management and its board of management were able to make a decision where, in fact, the closures that were regarded as necessary or unavoidable before last Monday's meeting thankfully did not come to pass because of the fact that they were able to make other decisions.

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