James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I will begin with some remarks about the financial crisis which the Government is tackling and the resulting challenges for the health service. At the beginning of the year hospitals had overrun by €70 million their budgets carried over from last year. In the first three months of the year, for whatever reason, there was a massive overrun in hospital budgets, as activity outstripped normal levels. In addition, because of the general financial position in the country and the fact that we must now report to the troika, we must save €1 billion on the health service. Given that background, we are trying to maintain services and, at the same time, institute a reform programme.

People are always exercised — rightly — about various facilities and different aspects of the health service. They want these to be fixed, rightly so. However, these matters do not arise in isolation. John Donne said, "No man is an island entire of itself." Similarly, no part of the health service works on its own. If a hospital has a problem in its emergency department, it cannot solve that problem within that department.