Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on health issues before the House adjourns for the summer. Health is the most important issue we can debate but it includes so many facets it is difficult to pin down. The House should review two reports published recently, though one of them not in full, namely, the Tribal Secta reports on the delivery of hospital services in the regions. Some of the material was reported by The Irish Times but not in a coherent fashion. I believe the findings of the reports have been suppressed because they do not chime with current Government policy, particular on the delivery of acute services. That policy, which is very clear from the report published on the north east last week and on which I called for an urgent debate, is to centralise services and downgrade smaller hospitals. The report reveals that large hospitals, rather than smaller ones, will deliver acute emergency services, which was confirmed by Professor Drumm at a briefing with Oireachtas Members this morning. If that sounds familiar to Senators I remind them that this was the policy recommended in the Hanly report and the Fitzgerald report and is certainly the policy of the current Government. It will mean that 26 general hospitals around the country will lose vital emergency services and it must be debated in this House.