John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I want to express my disappointment, and it is not the fault of the Minister of State, that much of what is contained in his reply is what was contained in the press release from the HSE yesterday. That is not satisfactory. Repeating the line that this is being done to facilitate the staff of the hospital is wrong because that is not the case. Does the Minister believe that increasing the number of day procedures will do something for a person who needs a hip or knee replacement operation? Those are the people I speak with primarily. Those people require inpatient care. They will not walk into the hospital in the morning, get a hip replaced and walk out again in the evening. Those are the people who will suffer because of this announcement. I fully agree with the Minister that we must examine the results from our health service and not focus on beds and consultants.