Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

Nobody is more proud of the work they do. If I was to have a heart attack, suffer from cancer or any other condition that would make me seriously ill, I would not want to go to any other country to be treated. If somebody in need of medical care and attention goes to an accident and emergency department, he or she may have to wait on a trolley – I accept this and wish it was different – but when admitted to the hospital he or she will get the best available care from some of the best consultants and nurses in the world on which I commend everybody involved in the health service.

People ask where the €9.2 billion spent on the health service this year has gone, and we talk about the administrative black hole, bureaucracy, reform and so on. That is a load of codswallop. I will tell the House where the money has gone. It has gone on more residential places for people with a disability. It has gone because people now have personal assistants that they did not have five, six or seven years ago. It has gone because people in the west suffering from cancer now have oncology services that they did not have in the past. My father died from cancer in 1995. At the time there was no oncologist in the Western Health Board area. Since 1995 a whole team has been put in place to deal with cancer patients.

People ask what is happening to the cardiac strategy. There are now four cardiologists in the west. That is decentralisation of the service and an indication of where the money has gone. The money has also gone into the appointment of consultants and on improving the lives of nursing staff. We have many more nurses now than we had in the past. Their wages have increased which I support. The Western Health Board is now providing 1 million hours of home help, not at the 1995 rate of £1 an hour but at above the minimum rate. That is where the €9.2 million has been spent.