Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and I thank her for taking time to come to the House this evening. We all woke up on 24 April last and heard the alert that Mexican or H1 N1 flu was here and had been detected in Mexico. It is an indication of the successful job the Minister is doing when one hears the two main Opposition speakers congratulating her Department and the HSE for the great work they have done in the past three weeks. I have watched the television news bulletins on the matter and I take my hat off to Dr. Tony Holohan. He gets better as time goes on. He has a very calm and experienced mind and is a very intelligent man. He allays the many fears the public may have with the calm way he assures people. I was taken by some of his recent comments. He stated that it was too early to reach a conclusion on the severity of the illness in cases reported outside Mexico. He further stated that any cases reported outside Mexico were milder than those detected in that country. He went on to state that this was a cause for hope but not for complacency. This sums him up because he has not been complacent by any measure or means and has been very much on the ball.

The Minister has referred to the daily meetings in her Department involving the Secretary General, Mr. Scanlan, and Professor Bill Hall. They have advised the public and kept it abreast of what is taking place. I check the website every day and it is updated almost minute by minute. I checked it on Monday and there were 985 confirmed cases outside Europe. This morning that number had reached 1,516 cases. That figure is even higher in the Minister's report, which is obviously several cases ahead of the report I examined. There has been no other flu, whether SARS or bird flu, on which we have had such a good handle and on which the public has felt so reassured by the response. I congratulate the Minister and her staff in this regard.

It is very important that we remain calm but vigilant as Dr. Holohan suggested. On my way to the Chamber I stopped briefly to talk with Deputy Rory O'Hanlon. He asked me to where I was rushing and I said I was going to speak on swine flu. I asked him what he would call it and he suggested it should be called Mexican flu. He stated how important it is to be calm and not to get too carried away. He further stated that every ten years a very strong variant of flu emerges and, unfortunately, takes lives. However, the difference in this case is that older people have built up a resistance. It is attacking younger people, especially children. I am glad that we have been very vigilant in our response to the single case in this country. The Minister outlined details of that case involving a male, living on the east coast who has been treated and is being monitored. Even his wider circle of friends are being monitored and probably treated too. It was interesting to listen to the World Health Organisation spokesperson, Dr. Kelly, a native of Curry, County Sligo. I am sure Sligonians are very proud of him. He is a young man but he certainly has a great handle on what is going on. I was interested the other morning to hear, I think on Pat Kenny's radio programme, a professor from UCD talk about the need for calmness. He said we should not get too carried away although he stressed that people should be vigilant. He pointed out that, each year, more than 25,000 people throughout the United States of America die from common colds. He put what has happened with swine flu and what has been said about it in context. It is interesting to note the Department of Health and Children's website has had 75,000 hits from the public. People are aware but they are not panicking or running around afraid.

On world travel, I note we are not telling people not to travel. We are saying that they should not go into Mexico. That is wise.

The Minister has done all she can through her Department and the Health Service Executive, HSE. I was delighted to hear her say that Ireland has one of the biggest stockpiles of any country of the drugs that would be used to treat swine flu. I think she said we have 47% coverage for our population. The information that is being given out on-line is excellent and people are reassured by it. I printed out a copy of the information that will go out from the HSE and the Department to people's homes in the next seven days. It is an interesting and easy read. Again, I thank the Minister, the staff in her Department and the HSE for the fine job they have made of allaying the population's fears.