Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. There is no tougher or more important challenge facing society than the reform of the health system. We want to transform it through investment and reform and to deliver lasting progress.

Improvement of the health service is a priority of this Government and over recent years funding has been increased significantly. The increased spending from €3 billion in 1997 to in excess of €10 billion in 2004 is a clear indication of the Government's investment in the health service. One thing that has been demonstrated quite clearly by the investment of more than €7 billion in the health service is that money itself is not the answer. Attempts to reform the service commenced under Deputy Cowen when he was Minister for Health and Children and continued under Deputy Martin. The Tánaiste and her team of the Minister, Ministers of State — Deputy Seán Power, Deputy Brian Lenihan and Deputy Tim O'Malley — are endeavouring to complete the task.

When we look back at what happened in 1970, what is being said today is no different from what the Opposition said at that time. Nothing has changed but the date. There was a hue and cry when the health committees of county councils were disbanded. I worked in the health service for many years. Counties Longford and Westmeath were administered by one county manager, including the health service in those counties. When the health boards were established in the Health Act 1970 by the late former Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Erskine Childers, people said they would not work. The same people are saying the same thing some years later.

Let us dwell for a moment on what the health boards have achieved. Anybody who knows anything at all about the health service will know that it was not possible for it to remain as it was pre-1970. There is no question that the health boards have their faults, but they have brought regional services to many parts of the country that otherwise would never have them. There is no doubt in my mind about that and we must be fair.

In recent years the investment in the health service has achieved significant results including record levels of activity in the acute hospital system. A range of additional services has also been provided across all care programmes. For the first time ever in 2003, over 1 million discharges and day cases were treated in our hospitals. This represents an increase of 46,000 discharges, almost a 5% increase, on 2002.

I come from rural Ireland and remember a time when there was weeping and gnashing of teeth if an ambulance arrived to bring somebody to hospital. It was considered a terrible event. Now people go to hospital for elective procedures. There has been a significant increase in day surgery, which in the main is governed by elective procedures, 190,000 cases or 76% since 1997, giving a total of 441,000 at the end of 2003. That speaks volumes.

Just as we are meeting the challenge of public health issues, we are also meeting the challenge of building a new health system. I would be the first to say that commissioning reports to gather dust on shelves is not the way to do business. However, the Government is taking on board the three reports that have been commissioned and is putting them into effect.

One of the many empty claims from people on the other side of the House is that nothing has changed, that things are as they were in 1997. Some people say we are not spending enough while others say we have spent too much and that the money has been spent with no return. One can legitimately ask where the money has gone. It is easy to find out. That is no big deal. It has gone into hiring 8,200 new nurses, 438 new consultants, 661 new occupational therapists, 456 extra physiotherapists and 200 extra speech and language therapists. I could go on.

Since the Government came to power, a college of nursing attached to the Athlone Institute of Technology has begun general nurse training in the region. Not alone that, but in recent years there has been the first intake of student psychiatric nurses in 21 years. It is also interesting to note that the points required by the CAO for psychiatric nursing are only 15 less than for general nursing. This is a turnaround from a situation in which psychiatric nurse training places were not being filled in many health boards. That is a huge step forward and is another success for the Government.

Senator O'Meara criticised the establishment of the Health Service Executive. It is not long since a Labour Party Minister, who totally turned his back on the association of health boards and would not acknowledge it or attend its conference, wanted to establish a bord sláinte and abolish all the health boards. That was Labour Party policy at that time. Some people suffer from a political malaise called convenient amnesia.