Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Will the Leader arrange a debate on the issue of universal entitlement? This should be based on what is happening not just in regard to the medical cards but also in regard to the cervical vaccine for young girls. This is incredibly important. It was a great achievement to produce such a vaccine; it is probably the only vaccine the world has against cancer. We are denying it to our young people. It was a short-sighted step by the Minister, who is saving €10 million by not rolling out this scheme. It would not take until 2010 to roll it out. It could be rolled out in three months if the HSE put its mind to it and was genuine about providing a vaccine against cancer in the Irish health care service. It is amazing. There are also knock-on effects in terms of encouraging prevention and health promotion among young people when we get them into the surgeries.

The short-sightedness is unbelievable. It is just as short-sighted as trying to take medical cards from people over 70. It is time the House had a debate on the universal entitlements available to people in this country. Our universal entitlements are not as good or generous as those available in other first world countries, particularly in the EU. Ireland is quite far behind in the provision of universal entitlements.

I am fully aware of the economic issues and I call on the Leader to hold proper debates on the economy. I accept the comments of other Members about competitiveness and what is happening on the jobs front, but we are talking about these matters as if they were somebody else's problem. We should have good debates on these issues. The debate we had yesterday with the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, was one of the better debates in this House. It focused on the clear differences in our perspectives for the future. However, too often in this House we see Members just covering all the boxes or corners. I will not name anybody but Members on the Government side are talking as if they are sitting on this side of the House. They are not making any contribution to the future of the country by just criticising things and saying they are wrong.

We must hold debates to discuss what we can do about issues. I ask the Leader to arrange such debates, and Members on the other side should take it on the chin if they get abuse from this side of the House. They walked themselves into this problem but they can get themselves out of it by having mature debates.