Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

I would welcome a debate on the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006. The conclusions of this report are hardly a surprise to anybody and we do not need the report to inform us that there are very serious difficulties in the delivery of our health service. The report was written from a consumer perspective and may not take account of some of the strategies being put in place, which have not yet impacted upon the delivery of services to the consumer. However, we need to see change happen much more quickly, particularly in respect of the consultants' contract.

Senator Norris raised the issue of the National Treatment Purchase Fund and stated it was ludicrous that we must go outside the State to buy services. It is ludicrous that we are crossing to the other side of the corridor within the same hospital to buy services. This is where some of the main difficulties arise.

A difficulty arises in respect of the health service building programme. At a parochial level, a development project in County Clare has been sanctioned for over three years but an application for planning permission for the project has yet to be lodged. We need to see greater emphasis on the delivery of projects. Decisions are taken at Government level and moneys are set aside but the implementation is very poor. We should have a debate on service delivery and on how the agencies responsible therefor, in addition to the practitioners, are not doing their job. Until the consultants are taken on, we will not see real change in the delivery of health services.