Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

This is especially the case in the communities in which this impacts most — new communities where people are largely out at work during the day and it is virtually impossible to get them at home at any time except in the evening.

Will the Leader of the House arrange a debate on the issue of accident and emergency units in hospitals around the country? Hardly a day passes that we do not read in the newspapers about a crisis in some accident and emergency unit, in many cases in our larger hospitals. The units in Drogheda and Letterkenny made the headlines most recently in terms of the HSE's own reports.

I would like the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children to come to the House to report to us what measures she intends to take to ensure that those hospitals get the resources they need. In particular, I would like to hear from her that these hospitals are not to blame for the crisis that has been created but that is has to do with underresourcing and underfunding, especially in the past nine years of this Administration.