Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for her reply and her presence. She will not find this side of the House lacking when it comes to supporting her reforms. Our problems are not with her announcement today regarding the centres of excellence but with the delay in their announcement and the fact that Professor Higgins's report stating such centres were necessary was on the then Minister for Health and Children's desk seven years ago. As a number of Government Members have acknowledged, issues arise in respect of transport, families who are obliged to travel long distances and the timeframe regarding such specialist centres.

I am pleased the first Private Members' motion in this House pertains to health because it is the key area in which Members must examine and, as the Minister stated, push reform. The Minister will agree there is no room for complacency. She could not be complacent as Minister for Health and Children while listening to the contributions made by Members from Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin and all parties regarding the geographical inequities throughout the State. This constitutes one of the most striking and sad features of our health service and was strikingly illustrated by Senator Healy Eames when she talked about Galway. BreastCheck is simply not available to women in Galway unless they opt for private treatment. Other colleagues spoke of the inequities in the services located in counties Donegal, Waterford and Cavan. I do not simply refer to breast cancer treatment but to treatment in general, such as, for example, radiotherapy in Waterford. The geographical inequities highlighted pose a serious challenge to the implementation of the Minister for Health and Children's reform agenda, notwithstanding Fine Gael's acceptance of the need for specialist services, about which no Member on this side of the House would disagree.

Having listened to the debate, the Minister will agree there is no room for complacency regarding the reality of the shortage of frontline personnel. There are waiting lists for neurology which are completely unacceptable and life-threatening. I saw a letter the other day which stated that a child and adolescent psychiatry service was closing for two years. Parents can not get children assessed. All around the country the personnel are not in place. Some of my colleagues spoke about the lack of general practitioners in certain areas. Others spoke of the lack of dentistry service. I could continue, as the Minister knows.

There are serious issues. Senator Donohoe raised the question, why, with such an increase in budget and staff, are we encountering the type of problems that one would not expect from a health service in an economy such as ours? While we will not answer all of the questions that were raised here tonight, they deserve further debate in this House as the reform agenda in the health area progresses.

We tabled this motion because of our broad concerns about the health services, but also because of the recruitment freeze. Concerns were expressed by some here tonight that this freeze may continue until January. The Minister did not address it in her spoken comments, but in her written comments she stated that there would be a review of the freeze on 1 October. We hope that it will be lifted and we look forward to hearing whether it can be. It is important that it is lifted.

The Minister was not complacent about it tonight but, while she addressed the issue in Sligo, she did not address the wide range of concerns which were expressed by patients, medical staff and nurses about the effect of the current cutbacks. If people are to get the kind of services of which we spoke tonight and which people in Ireland deserve in this century, it is essential that the freeze is lifted on 1 October. With the kind of resources available in the country, we should not see a freeze three quarters of the way through the year. A number of my colleagues have questioned the introduction of the freeze so late in the year. It raises questions about management and it seems fair to raise those tonight. Those are our reasons for making the health motion our priority tonight. I commend the motion to the House.