Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

If Deputy Ó Caoláin will allow me finish, Deputy Adams, with his experience in Northern Ireland should know full well that coming as he does from Belfast the situation in Northern Ireland was actually dealt with by the creation of a special delivery unit to deal with waiting lists which were eliminated over a period of 15 to 18 months. The Minister for Health received government approval to set up a special delivery unit here to tackle that very issue and not to have a situation in which 329 people are on trolleys or anyone on trolleys but this will not happen overnight after the legacy of inactivity for so many years. A fundamental aspect towards addressing this issue is that the special delivery unit is now headed up by a specialist person and will be in a position, with ministerial assistance, to ask consultants how one consultant has a two-year waiting list when another consultant's waiting list is three months. I assure the Deputy it will be dealt with.

No decision has been made in respect of the withdrawal of services for those who need them in the region from Donegal to Kerry. Meetings are being arranged by the Minister for Health this very day to deal with it. Just three weeks ago, Deputies raised in a proper fashion the issue of the fair deal scheme and the Minister had to find out where funds of €100 million had gone down a different route. Between today and 11 July, the position in respect of the non-consultant hospital doctors is being examined and we will not have a situation in which junior doctors are in an unsupervised environment when treating and attending patients in hospitals.

I am as concerned as the Deputy about the situation in which elderly people might not be in a position to receive the attention they deserve. As the Deputy knows, in some cases over the years, people within the health system have provided brilliant opportunities and assistance while other cases highlighted in this House over the years have shown up the inefficiency in many respects of a health service that was allowed to run out of control. I am as concerned as the Deputy that every person who needs medical attention should get it to the highest standard and the highest level of treatment. The Deputy can take it from me that the Minister will focus on this aspect at the meetings he is attending today.

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