Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

I am not convinced there is any great urgency in what the Minister has outlined to us. He is talking about structures, but we need results. The Minister must agree that the report was quite an indictment of the present system. For example, the Defence Forces are high users of primary health care compared with the civilian population and other armed forces, and the current requirement for medical assessment is not met, with a shortfall of approximately 60%. What I find worrying is the statement in the report that, "The Medical Corps does not take a systematic, information-based approach to planning and management of services". Does the Minister have a timeframe for bringing about this large cultural and structural change in the services? What is there is obviously adequate, although we have not alluded to the fact that there is a major problem with recruitment. Has there been any improvement in recruitment since the Minister set about implementing the recommendations in the report? All in all, the report describes a shambles. This needs to be put to rights quickly.

See this speech in context