Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Daly's call for a debate with the Minister for Health and Children on the shambles that is the Health Service Executive. I am aware that the Minister, Deputy Harney, will be in the House tomorrow to deal with the Health Bill 2006. When I heard Senator O'Toole speaking about mushrooms, I was reminded of the approach taken by the HSE to the people it is supposed to serve. Like mushrooms, we are kept in the dark and fed lots of you-know-what.

I would like to give two examples of the problems I would like to raise with the Minister. A 42 year old man from County Tipperary who was discharged from Cappagh Hospital after a serious spinal operation was referred for rehabilitation to "Our Lady's Hospital" in Thurles, even though there is no such hospital. When he travelled by ambulance from Dublin to a hospital in County Tipperary, he discovered that the hospital knew nothing about him and did not have a bed for him. If it had not been for the intervention of a local health services manager, who used common sense and a great deal of effort to try to sort out the problem, there would have been nowhere for the man in question to go. People living in rural Ireland have to tolerate difficulties like those encountered in this case, which has not yet been sorted out. Similar problems are a feature of the out-of-hours doctor service. I know some people who were minding a child of four or five years of age as a favour to their neighbour. When the child became sick, they contacted the Shannondoc service, which refused to treat the child or issue a prescription without knowing the child's medical card number. There is an urgent need for a debate on the treatment of this nature that we are now expected to tolerate. I call for such a discussion of these matters.

I would like to comment on the various agricultural schemes for which farmers now have to apply. Can we ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food to come to the House before the end of this session for a debate on the issue of compliance? I refer in particular to a 166-page document, including 1,450 boxes which have to be ticked, that has been issued to farmers. Given that many parts of the country do not even have broadband, it is wrong of the high-tech Department of Agriculture and Food to think about people making applications by e-mail. The Government, which promised under Agenda 2000 that it would make farming free and easy, seems to have gone totally and absolutely crazy.