John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I join Senator Twomey in calling for a debate on the realignment of hospital accident and emergency services. Such a debate was called for earlier this week and last week. Reports have been compiled in number of regions on how services, including maternity and accident and emergency services, should be realigned. For some reason, however, these reports have not been published, even though they were to be published by now. There is much concern in hospitals that they will lose some of these vital services. We should, therefore, have a full discussion as soon as possible to ascertain the HSE's thinking on the issue. This is an example of where the Government has transferred powers to an undemocratic institution. There is no transparency on how it reaches decisions. The Leader faces similar issues in his region.