Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I congratulate Deputy Brian Cowen on his election as leader designate of the Fianna Fáil Party and wish him luck in his new role. By taking up this new role, it will mean he will appoint a new Minister for Finance. When the new Minister for Finance is appointed, will the Leader invite that person to the House?

The Department of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, recently commissioned a report on climate change and trying to establish what public attitudes were towards various measures which have been taken to try to tackle climate change. It would appear there are very high levels of public support for fiscal measures which would begin to tackle climate change seriously and help individuals to move towards behaving more sustainably. Such measures include the changes to motor taxation and vehicle registration. The public indicated it would support strongly other measures in the interest of addressing climate change. Will the Leader invite the new Minister for Finance to the House to outline the fiscal reforms which will be undertaken to truly green the agenda and to address climate change seriously?

Will the Leader raise with the Minister for Health and Children the audit of stroke care services commissioned by the Irish Heart Foundation, the results of which have been published and reported on in this morning's newspapers? The findings are very worrying. There are between 350 and 500 deaths each year due to strokes. Some 10,000 people present in hospital with the primary diagnosis of stroke. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive system to manage strokes. There are huge deficits in the stroke care provided to people.

In the hours immediately after a stroke has occurred, it would appear brain scans, CAT scans and clot busting therapy, which are an essential part of stroke care, are not available in our hospitals. As another speaker mentioned, there is only one stroke unit in the Mater Hospital. There are only 12 protected beds for stroke patients.

Unfortunately, people are suffering from strokes at a younger age and it would appear the community and rehabilitation services are not available, especially for people under 65 years who suffer from strokes. Today's findings are salient to us all and I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Health and Children to come to the House to address this issue and outline what her Department intends to do in response to the findings.