James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

We all get disorientated in here. It happens to the best of us. With regard to the Minister's semantics about somebody lying on a trolley, we all know what we mean by trolleys in accident and emergency and the length of time people have to wait. There is no question about that. What the Minister describes is something that will happen into the future. The reality is that people are lying on trolleys now, and they were there yesterday, the day before, last week and last year because they do not have access to the diagnostics to which the Minister referred because they are not being provided. There is no point talking about utopia and how things will change until those measures are put in place.

Professor Drumm and the Minister gave a great performance at the committee earlier in the week about all the things that will be done. Until they are done and until we see the primary care rolled out, we have a real problem. The bottom line remains that the Minister must accept responsibility. For the past three years, despite announcing her plan, despite the money that was spent on it and despite saying this would be treated as a national emergency, it has not happened. After three years, the public do not believe it will happen under the Minster's jurisdiction.

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