Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Perhaps she could explain precisely what is the Government's plan. So far we have seen doctor-only medical cards which our foolish citizenry do not see the merits of, in spite of continual attempts by the Minister for Health and Children to demonstrate that they are a great idea. Either our citizens can see that they are of no benefit or they cannot. I would like to know about the much touted HSE plan for dealing with the accident and emergency crisis, which as far as I can see amounted to persuading as many old people as possible to get themselves vaccinated. We would all agree with that but not with the implication that the cause of the crisis is the under-vaccination of our elderly population. Everybody, apart from the Minister and the HSE, accepts the fundamental problem is that we do not have enough acute beds in our hospitals.

The third issue is the spiralling cost of health insurance for the proportion of the population that can afford it, a potentially declining proportion. May we have a serious debate so we can hear from some of the more vocal Members opposite what they understand to be the position, in the presence of the Minister for Health and Children so she can clarify whether their understanding is the same as her own because it is the biggest issue facing the country?

When we adjourned in the summer the entire Western world, the European Union and the United States in particular, abandoned any sense of morality in international affairs. The compliance of the European Union and the United States with the Israeli assault on Lebanon in a deliberate campaign was guaranteed to ensure there was no immediate ceasefire. That particular position, which was the EU position, was allowed to go through a conference in Rome in which the EU fudged to avoid a confrontation with the United States and in which the fundamental question of the need for an immediate ceasefire was deliberately fudged to allow Israel to continue its actions. According to the United Nations there are one million cluster bomblets in southern Lebanon waiting to be handled by vulnerable civilians who are trying to get back to the homes that were so brutally destroyed. Given that there is a fundamental issue involved, I call for a debate in the near future on the situation in the Middle East to see whether we can assert some moral influence to restore the position of the European Union.

I would not mind having a debate on the European Union's response to the applications for membership by Romania and Bulgaria, which have been approved in principle. One of those two countries has been told off about the fact that there are a large number of unsolved contract killings which, if it is a criterion for membership, puts our membership in some jeopardy. Another one has been told off because of the lack of clarity about the relationship between politics and business. Does that mean that particular country will have to ensure senior ministers cannot take loans from their friends whom they then appoint to state companies? There is an interesting ethical issue here and, perhaps, we need to be careful to ensure the same principles we demand of new members are applied to existing members.