The Midland Health Board took the decision to rationalise hospital services in the mid-1980s. There was an outcry when we closed Longford County Hospital and discontinued maternity services in the Leader's own town of Athlone and in Tullamore. Time has proven that our decision was the right one. It is only in centres where there is a large throughput of cases that the provision of specialist services will be most efficient. This has been clinically proven by more eminent people than me.