Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I wish to pick up on the point raised by Senator Coghlan about the costs in various professions. It ties in with an issue I would like to have clarified. I am aware of one individual who was concerned about the costs of medical services and felt that some of them could be delivered more cheaply. He went to the trouble of investing privately in an MRI machine that would be made available at cheaper cost to the medical profession. He spent a lot of money on doing this and established the system in a properly staffed medical establishment. However, the individual is being isolated and boycotted by the medical profession, which refuses to have anything to do with him because he is not part of the great rip off. I would appreciate the attendance of the Minister for Health and Children for a discussion on this matter.

I have asked previously for a debate on the entire funding of the health services. Trades unions have raised with me on a number of occasions their belief that money could be better used and directed within the health service and that people at the bottom are suffering. There are all sorts of issues that need to be addressed, but that is certainly one of them.

We have had some discussion in the House in recent times with the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, about the problems in the west and in remote communities. There is a shocking story in today's newspapers about the death of a member of the island community of Inishbiggle. For 20 years, that community has sought commitments from Government for the erection of a bridge between Inishbiggle and Achill Island, about 200 yards away. It has received commitments in the past but they have been ignored. It is a very dangerous stretch of water, and now a life has been lost. There would be a far greater reaction if this happened in some other part of Ireland. I call upon the House to support that island community in getting a bridge build to their island. It is no greater a project than building a bridge across a dual carriageway from a hotel to a university on the south side of Dublin. If we are to have a commitment to small rural communities, we must invest on their behalf to give them the infrastructure they need to live their lives.