Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I find it very disturbing that the Minister for Health and Children is on a 15 day trip which began yesterday for St. Patrick's Day. I fail to understand why she would go when we have such a crisis in our health service.

It will take ten weeks for all the X-rays to be read. I put myself in the position of people who had an X-ray in Tallaght hospital and consider the fear and uncertainty that must be in their hearts. It is also quite extraordinary that there are bags of unopened post in the postroom in Tallaght hospital and GP letters have gone unread. I do not understand how there can be such a fundamental breakdown in communication. This House was told about centres of excellence and how important it is to have quantities of people. All of the people necessary to provide the quality of service, about which the Minister reassured us, are in place but the X-rays are not even being read. Yesterday, I raised the issue and I spoke about the fact that a consultant radiologist was appointed in January after the horse had bolted. The issue is with regard to staffing and resources and those out there do not have the wherewithal to support the 58,000 people. Let us not forget that these are individuals waiting for results to discover their diagnosis.

I call for a debate on banking, which has been called for by many Members on both sides of the House. We all received an e-mail from a very upset lady who has a business which employs one person. The banks took from her the money she was going to use for food for her five month old baby and 17 year old daughter. People have come to my constituency clinic who are unable to obtain credit. We bailed out the banks to an extraordinary amount of money and we will have to continue to do so because they are on the brink. However, we will not provide money for businesses.

I have a final point.