Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I add my support to the call for a proper debate on what is happening at Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. We are getting so fixated with costs for the services provided that we are making a complete mess of this. The Government has no clear idea where it is going. There is a need for a serious debate on the matter. It is damaging the services being provided at the hospital by its behaviour. There is talk of the Government giving an additional €50,000 a year to consultants and recently we heard that it wants to cut fees to pharmacists by up to 40%, effectively bankrupting the community care services pharmacists provide. Regardless of whether it is right, there seems to be no clear direction. We need a serious debate on the matter.

I was interested in what Senator Hanafin said. He wants people to present policies on €20 billion worth of cuts. I never heard anybody talking about €20 billion worth of cuts and I do not know whether this is a pre-budget statement by Fianna Fáil as to what it will do in November. I was under the impression that there was to be €4 billion in cuts in the next round of budget talks presented by the Government. We have made our statements and would be quite prepared to debate what we feel should be done with the economy. It certainly gives a good indication of the thinking of the Government parties if they are talking about those sorts of draconian measures to cut public spending, which will only make things worse based on what we have heard today.