Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy wants a detailed response from the Minister for Health, he will get it in respect of many of the things he has commented on here. In respect of the Department I have myself, which is the Department of the Taoiseach, there were 44 commitments entered into in respect of the programme for Government and 40 and four in the revised statement issued last July. Three quarters of those have been completed or are substantially complete and work is ongoing in the other eight or ten.

The Deputy also mentioned the survey produced from a European perspective during the course of the week. As I understand it, this was based upon analysis of different surveys carried out by organisations as distinct from figures produced by the HSE. While the Deputy has always decried the references that parties have made to the Dutch health system, it is interesting to note that it comes out on top in most of these assessments. Ireland can be seen to perform well in patient outcomes - as well as France, Belgium and Denmark and better than the United Kingdom. These include important objective measures, Deputy Adams, such as death from stroke or cardiovascular diseases, cancer survival and infant deaths.

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