Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It may be the report has potential, we must wait and see. We must factor in the lack of confidence in the Minister and the fact he has broken promise after promise. He entered office promising to restore emergency services to Roscommon General Hospital and he broke that and other promises. It is deplorable, as it is for the family involved, that a patient should spend a night on a trolley. We have repeatedly raised this issue - Deputy Ó Caoláin before me - and it is totally deplorable. We must also factor in the fact the Government is cutting resources to the health services, not enhancing them.

The Minister is reported as saying yesterday that his proposals will make it more difficult for rogue operators to inflict damage on patients. We deserve to know who these rogue operators are. We deserve to know what patients have been damaged and what the damage was. Across the State the same system that existed under the last Government is in place, with people struggling with the same excessive GP fees and numerous beds lost, along with services and staff.

I do not recognise the consultation process the Taoiseach outlined earlier on. I have been consulted as a Teachta Dála but in terms of local communities of hospital users and their families, that is not a mark of how we do our business in this State. Would the Taoiseach acknowledge there is genuine concern about what these proposals mean for local hospitals? There must be a consultation process to clear that up. Could the Taoiseach clarify the Minister's remark about rogue operators inflicting damage on patients?

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