Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Special provision should be made for this. We cannot have people disrupting accident and emergency departments. It is almost as bad in a different way in the psychiatric services. This is a crazy scene. We have the best trained people in Europe in all our hospitals, yet we have gougers, and I do not apologise for the term, going in who are boozed up to the gills and creating mayhem. This should not happen and should not be allowed to happen to sick people and those trying to care for them.

The money has been invested in improving cancer survival rates and exceeding ambitious targets three years ahead of schedule. It has also gone into specific improvements in every element of the health system. In 2003, almost 200 more cases were dealt with in our hospitals than were dealt with before we started our programme. That in itself speaks volumes.

In 2003, more than 1 million people were treated in our health system. These are real people receiving real treatment for serious conditions. The additional staff recruited in recent years have contributed to this treatment. It is an insult to those people to say there has been no improvement in service delivery. I question what planet the people saying this are on.

Funding for the largest hospital refurbishment programme in the State's history has been put in place. Additional services mean additional resources, which is why we have more than trebled funding for the health service. We are not talking about funding alone; we are talking about human resources. People need to be trained.

In the past we all heard about difficulties in the area of orthodontics. When I first began to hold political clinics over 20 years ago if anybody mentioned orthodontics I slunk down under the table because there was nothing I could do for them. It is a totally different ball game now; through the efforts of an excellent consultant orthodontist, Dr. David Hegarty, we have turned the corner. We have eliminated waiting lists altogether in a number of counties in the old Midland Health Board region.

I do not agree with what is proposed regarding the consultative forum. It is absolutely imperative that the role of representatives from county councils and borough councils remain. I was chairman of the health board at the time when we were first consulted and I said there had to be an input from local representatives. These consultative forums will have a bearing. They will be an important conduit to convey grievances from members of the public to where it counts, Government. At the end of the day, responsibility must rest with Government, which has been given a mandate by the public that it must discharge.