Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House, but I do not particularly welcome the Bill. While there is no doubt that change was needed, the proposed rationalisation represents throwing out the baby with the bath water. I was a member of the Western Health Board from 1992 to 2002 and was chairman when we bought Portiuncula Hospital and the Bon Secours Hospital in Tuam. We built a new accident and emergency unit in Roscommon and upgraded all the wards. Everything was going extremely well and the situation was never better.