James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. If the basic principle of benchmarking was reward for increased paper usage and excessive verbiage, the Department of Health and Children would be a model for all to follow. The production of 148 reports in five years must be symptomatic of something but it is not an efficient health service. Following the other 147 reports, the Hanly report must be the worst of the batch. It offers no viable solutions to resolve the rapidly escalating crisis in medical care and, worse still, it offers no guarantee of funding to implement its recommendations.

However, in keeping with the old adage what comes around goes around, it offers another report to follow as one of its key recommendations. This report is conveniently scheduled by the Government not to appear until after the local and European elections. The deferral of the report is laden with self-serving motivation, as unpalatable proposals are not the usual pre-election fare of the Government parties. Just as Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, it should not be forgotten that, while reports are written and action is not taken, people's lives are on the line. The Hanly report puts forward plans that are essentially experimental. They will put the lives of our citizens at risk and that could lead to increased suffering and death.

Given the mounting evidence of Government mismanagement of our health services during the Celtic tiger years and the failure of the Government parties since their re-election to deliver on their promises, I have no faith in their ability to effect major changes to the system without endangering lives. Meeting the EU deadline on the reduction of junior doctors' hours to no more than 58 per week by making a feeble call for pilot projects and future reports is an attempt by the Government to rationalise and close small hospitals under the guise of reform and a promise of better quality services.

Investment will be the crucial factor in the success of new initiatives for our health service. Sadly, when such funding was available in the boom years and the entire health sector could have been transformed in terms of both acute and non-acute services, it was wasted in favour of short-term expediency. If the recommendations of the Hanly report are to be implemented, it will be imperative that regional facilities receive significant funding to provide viable alternatives for the loss of local facilities. A total of 2,500 new beds will be necessary to replace emergency beds lost at local level and major investment will be required to replace facilities at local level. Extra resources will be required in the primary care area and GPs will require skills updating so that they can take on tasks previously undertaken by local hospitals. Ambulance services and the training of paramedics will need to be greatly extended and a countrywide air ambulance service will have to be established as a matter of priority. Senator Feighan referred to the poor health infrastructure and improved infrastructure will be of vital importance, with a specific requirement for major road investment. Local hospitals will require extensive funding to equip them for their new roles in local elective surgery.