Phil Prendergast (Labour)

How much is being invested in cancer control? Of the additional €20.5 million, what is the total spend on cancer control? How much of the total spend on health services, some €12 billion, comprises salaries?

I agree with the Minister's point on hospital visiting hours and people's tendency to overstay. There is a poor public understanding that many hospital patients are sick with infectious diseases.

While it may sound old-fashioned, there were not many incidents of dirty hospitals when the nuns ran them. Recently a patient advocate recounted to me an incident in a hospital when a confused patient urinated behind a water dispenser. The hospital cleaner, who did not speak English, mopped the urine over the entire floor. That may be an exception but it does happen.

Uniform identification should not vary in order that the public and patients can recognise various grades. The staff nurse uniform in one hospital may be the same as that for a household services officer, a nurses' aid or a ward sister in another. Variance in hospital uniforms can cause confusion among the public. This was made apparent to me recently when I transferred a patient, who was deaf and could not read or write, to a Dublin hospital. It was difficult to explain to her that in the Dublin hospital, the person in the navy dress would conduct an intimate examination while the woman in the green dress might give her a cup of tea.

This is great opportunity to put these questions to the Minister this evening. I would be delighted if she could clarify the matters raised.