James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I would like to make the following final point, much to the mirth of our friend from Cork. The reality is that we must reform the service at the top so that structures can be put in place to allow people on the front line to deliver the service they are well capable of delivering. We must support those at ground level at the same time. This is being done through the service delivery unit, SDU, which has made a real impact. The clinical programmes commenced their genesis under the previous Administration. Without the support of the SDU in terms of implementation, the impact made to date would not have been made, which is acknowledged by the people concerned. What we have is a powerful combination of clinical programmes and a service delivery unit to ensure they are implemented, not alone where they start, namely, Cork, but across the system.

See this speech in context