Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I have a question for the Leader. I listened to Professor Conlon and was very impressed by him. I believe we have a great man heading up Tallaght Hospital, which is a great hospital. He discovered the problem within a couple of days of taking up his appointment. He was medical director prior to taking up his post as chief executive officer and he put the ball in motion. The guidelines that were brought in after what happened in Portlaoise Hospital were put in place immediately in Tallaght. Some 3,000 to 4,000 X-rays are being looked at every week in Tallaght Hospital and the process will be finished by May, only two months away. This morning the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, accepted that the process which is in place now is perfectly acceptable. However, I ask the Leader for a debate on the good things that are happening in the Department of Health and Children and the HSE, such as the introduction of primary care and specialist centres, the setting up of HIQA and the fair deal policy. We have had individual debates on all those matters.

Senator Buttimer said that no X-rays were read. X-rays were read. They might not have been read by a radiologist but were read by very experienced consultants who were dealing with the individual patients.