James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Health and Children to the House to debate the fair distribution of health services throughout the country. In the midlands, elderly and sick people leave their homes at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. three days a week to access dialysis machines here in Dublin, Galway and elsewhere. Those facilities should be located in hospitals such the Longford Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar, for example. It should be the Minister's objective to ensure that quality health services are accessible, irrespective of location. Currently — and I raised this last week on the Order of Business — emergency services are not available on a 24-hour basis in the midlands and elsewhere. Cutbacks are occurring as we speak.

Mr. Kevin Kelly, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, said recently that cutbacks of approximately €200 million in the health service would be necessary between now and the end of 2005. As public representatives, we should be told which frontline services will be hit by the Government between now and the end of the year. This information is factual and was reported in the media last week and the previous week. Funding will be reduced to the tune of €200 million, which will have very serious effects on the delivery of health services and we want to know which services will be affected.