Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

The Minister has a difficult job and I wish him the best of luck with it. One can only suppose that reports such as the Hanly report are aimed at people with a vast knowledge of the health system. For a lay person such as myself, the reports have become complicated documents despite their summaries of the main points. One would have to be an expert to interpret many of the reports. Take, for example, the chart on page 170 of the Hanly report. It is like the circuit diagram for a space shuttle. The interesting question that arises, which is never dealt with, is the costs of these reports and the expenses incurred. I have no wish to undermine the work of the group as its members have obviously worked hard but perhaps they go above the call of duty.

According to my colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, this is the 148th report for the Department of Health and Children in the last five years. The Department could be called "the Department of Reports". Other notable reports in recent times were the Bacon report, the value for money report by Deloitte and Touche, the health strategy "Quality and Fairness – A Health Strategy for You", the bed capacity review of 2002, the Prospectus report and the Brennan report. The Hanly report is envisaged as the first of a series which will continue on the same theme but for different regions. What will happen to these reports? The health service will muddle on with a patchwork quilt of ideas from various reports and none will be used until the various interest and pressure groups are satisfied.

The Hanly report deals with three issues. The first is working hours for doctors, especially non-consultant hospital doctors. The second is a consultant provided rather than a consultant led service. This means there will be many more consultants at the coalface of the health service rather than being on call with the junior doctors doing most of the initial work. The third and most contentious issue is the attempt to rationalise the configuration of acute hospital services. The Minister faces a difficult task in that regard.