John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I said the Senator was. He should listen. The proposed strike could be averted if a concerted effort was made by all concerned and I hope it is made as soon as possible.

I agree with previous speakers who called for a debate on health. Two reports were published today, including the OECD report on standards of health care and different health problems across 30 countries, including Ireland. It showed that Ireland has the third highest level of deaths from breast cancer in the 30 countries surveyed. It also showed that Ireland had a 6% or 7% higher rate of prostate cancer than the OECD average. It strikes me as strange at a time when such reports are being published that we are talking about closing services in Mullingar, which is only the tip of the iceberg in that cancer services in a number of other hospitals are due to close, including in my local hospital, St. Luke's in Kilkenny. We should have a debate on this issue.

The idea of centres of excellence is correct but Senator McFadden is right in that no centre of excellence is proposed for a whole region of the country, namely, the midlands. Significant worry is being caused by that.

I also call for a debate on the interesting report published today by the Health Information and Quality Authority, which was established recently. The document highlights the level of dirtiness in public hospitals. This issue is surely at the kernel of the health service. If we cannot have clean hospitals, what are we at? I asked a number of weeks ago about the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health and Children. I do not know who is running the shop as things stand.