Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Some 9,000 operations on adults were cancelled by the HSE between January and June of this year. A further 1,000 operations on children were cancelled at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. Earlier in the year, we were told that would not happen. Some 216,000 bed days were lost last year as a result of delayed discharges, which is the equivalent of Tallaght Hospital being closed down for a full year. That is what we have got. We know about the cancellation of the cervical cancer programme. When I checked the latest figures before I came to the Chamber, I learned that 315 people are on trolleys in hospitals around the country today. There are no trolleys in wards in any of the Dutch hospitals.

I reiterate that I will support the Taoiseach in the right circumstances. I am often accused of being at loggerheads with him on everything. That is the case on most occasions. The Taoiseach wants the health system to be sorted out. It is recognised and understood that many things have gone wrong over the last 12 months under the system the Government has put into practice, which is endorsed by the Minister for Health and Children. The chief executive of the HSE has been awarded a bonus of €75,000 on foot of such incompetence. I accept that is not what the Taoiseach stands for. It is not the kind of health system he wants. As the Leader of the Opposition, I assure the Taoiseach that my party will support him if he is prepared to take on board the effective measures that can and do work in a country of 17 million people that is a two-hour flight from here. If we start now, we can have such a system here. Otherwise, a bottomless pit of taxpayers' money will continue to be pumped into an inefficient system. The Taoiseach and I know how that can change. If he is prepared to start real reform, so am I.

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