John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

As an aside, I noted, with a smile, that the leader of Fine Gael has given himself more time to address accident and emergency issues than he has given the Tánaiste. He has given himself 30 months.

While Fine Gael has produced buckets of negativity, no health policies whatsoever have been produced by the Labour Party since the general election, apart from scraps from the last election, such as free GP services for all, even for the richest in society. I find this incredible.

The approach taken by this Government is yielding positive results. Brand new accident and emergency departments have been established in Cork, Blanchardstown, Naas and Roscommon, as well as a new 32-bed unit at the Mater Hospital. The first ever national hygiene audits of hospitals has been undertaken. This is an example of how problem solving is being taken from an anecdotal stage to an evidence-based approach.

In co-operation with the HSE, the Government is addressing the issue of delayed discharges in a sensitive and appropriate manner by helping people into step-down and long-term care places. The HSE is also engaged in another first, namely, a tender process for out of hours GP services for the northside of Dublin. It will improve GP services for Dubliners and alleviate some pressure on accident and emergency services at night.

On foot of the commitment in the health strategy, funding has been provided to open an additional 900 inpatient beds and day treatment places in acute hospitals. At the end of 2005, a total of 804 such beds were in place. The remaining 96 bed places will come on stream in the coming months. Remarkably, Fine Gael made no commitment to providing new hospital beds in its new health policy. In contrast, we have projects for 450 more beds and we have introduced an initiative to create 1,000 new public beds by having the private sector build private hospitals on the sites of public hospitals. This will free up additional beds for public patients.

While we correctly call for the maximum to be delivered from current levels of resources, it does not mean more resources are not being provided. For example, the 2006 Estimates for the Health Service Executive included €60 million to open new facilities built under the national development plan. These new facilities will include additional inpatient beds and day treatment places in acute hospitals. Resource provision should not be an issue, but resource use must be for the sake of patients and taxpayers. As the Tánaiste outlined, if public spending grows in line with economic growth, and health spending remains at approximately a quarter of public spending, we will probably have approximately €7 billion more available for health by 2012. While we will have more resources, we must also have reform. We must not have reform for its own sake, but to ensure immediate improvements in practical areas like faster services in accident and emergency units, better GP cover out-of-hours, more efficient use of hospital beds, more fairness for public patients in public hospitals and more care in the community for older people. Would the Opposition honestly undo that process?

The Fine Gael leader appeared at the weekend to be unaware that the Irish Nurses Organisation has said it will stay out of benchmarking II, so he cannot rely on benchmarking to deliver change. Fine Gael has not said whether it would pay the INO demand for more pay and four hours less work a week, at a cost of €1.5 billion. The Opposition bizarrely objects to the plan to deliver 1,000 new public beds by private sector investment. Typically clouded by leftist Labour Party thinking, it managed to describe this as privatisation. Fine Gael appears to base its opposition on the mistaken view that public land will simply be given away. It will not. Public land will, of course, have to be leased or bought at commercial rates. The procurement process for these projects will begin soon throughout the country. Will Fine Gael oppose that project?

This afternoon's session is more than just an opportunity to engage in hand-wringing and rehearsed outrage. It is an opportunity to see who can objectively assess the challenges and propose workable, costed, detailed and evidence-based solutions. I have taken this opportunity to do just that on behalf of the Progressive Democrats. It is more with hope than with expectation that I look forward to the contributions from Members opposite.