Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. The Deputy's supplementary question relates to interest rates, but it refers to a commercial decision on the part of the bank in question. As stated, however, the Government has a 15% share in Bank of Ireland and it is not a case of our ordering it or any other bank to reduce interest rates. I would like to believe an interest rate reduction being passed on by the European Central Bank is designed to ease pressure on people. However, the matter to which the Deputy refers relates to a commercial decision taken by Bank of Ireland. The Government has given support to those mortgage holders who bought their houses when there were enormous surges in the price of property and who are experiencing particular pressures.

The Deputy referred to the Cabinet sub-committee on health, details relating to the membership of which I have provided. A range of issues has been dealt with in the context of reform, be it in respect of the establishment of the implementation group on universal health insurance, the introduction of universal primary care and the risk equalisation scheme and the legislation to be put in place in 2013. As the Deputy will be aware, the special delivery unit became operational in September 2011 and has had a significant and valuable impact on reducing the number of patients on trolleys in hospitals. The overall surgical waiting list decreased by 7% in the past year, while the number of those waiting for over 12 months is down by 85%. In addition, the backlog of 58,000 medical card applications was cleared by the end of April. The development of chronic disease management programmes, particularly for diabetes, is also in train. When the chief medical officer of the Department of Health was making a presentation some time ago, I was struck by his assertion that we could be faced with the possibility of there being up to 300,000 in this country in the future with diabetes. The vast majority of the cases of diabetes to which he referred are preventable by means of adjusting people's attitudes, diets and patterns of activity. An enormous information campaign on the part of the Government will be required in this regard. There are so many other matters to which I could refer, including the case we discussed previously, namely, that of the cystic fibrosis unit at St. Vincent's Hospital which opened in July and provides between 20 and 34 inpatient beds for persons suffering from cystic fibrosis.

I cannot inform the Deputy about the detail of the discussions which take place at meetings of Cabinet sub-committees. In general, however, the areas I have outlined in the context of the sub-committee on health are those which are acted upon as part of the strategy to change the health system to ensure better delivery and more effective care for every patient. Such a system will come into being when the universal health insurance model applies at the end of the Government's term of office.

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