Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

That was wrong. It is politically criminal not to state it should not have been done. Unlike other colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, hung up the telephone on a radio interview when it was put to him. I know the Minister will not do so. I ask him to do justice to the people and state it should never have been said that a centre of excellence for cancer services would be built in Sligo when it was never going to happen.

What is the up-to-date situation on follow-up mammography in the parts of the country where people are expected to travel many miles for services? Commitments given by Professor Keane and countless people in the national cancer control programme have been welshed upon as have pre-election commitments. The women of the north west and other parts of the country need to know the position on this. The programme for Government includes a commitment to extend the age limit for BreastCheck to 70 years. This needs to be done; when will it happen? Medical politics, intra-hospital, intra-discipline and from one professor to another, would put the politics and internal hand-to-hand combat in political parties such as Fianna Fáil and I am sure Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the ha'penny place. It is reprehensible. I have no doubt Senator Crown could give us an insight into some of this because he has great expertise in the area.

The report written by Hannah Magee on changing cardiac catheterisation health throughout the country has the ambition to have a stent in place in heart attack victims within 90 minutes. Professor Kieran Daly of UCHD is implementing the recommendations made in this report and it is honourable that it is being done. Again, centres of excellence are proposed in Dublin at the Mater Hospital and St. James's Hospital and in Galway and Cork with stepdown facilities in Limerick and Waterford and the usual gaping void north of the line from Dublin to Galway and in the south west. Is it the policy of the HSE and by extension the Government that the people of these parts of the country should either move or die? The people in Limerick had better make sure their heart attacks occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday as otherwise their survival chances are reduced. I always use the analogy from George Orwell's Animal Farm that all people are equal but when it comes to health in this country some are more equal than others. This is wrong.

With regard to pathology, where is the report which stated pathology services would be centralised? This would make sense as blood tests taken by GPs would be sent to a centralised location. It also proposed that pathology services in many hospitals throughout the country would be wound down. I am not a physician and I look to Senator Crown and others with medical expertise, but I must ask how it is possible to have an acute hospital in an area without pathology facilities. I am told this is being proposed and I ask the Minister to clarify it.

It may well be a good idea to bring in outside managers to hospitals but people are already in place to manage them. Granted, this is not the case with regard to the CEO of UCHD but other hospitals in the HSE west area have management in place. What will happen is that other managers will be brought in to show them how to do the job. This is ridiculous in the extreme. At the outset, the Minister clarified that the budgetary situation is dire. I agree with him and I do not envy him his task nor doubt his commitment, but how in God's name can we keep a straight face while telling people the budget is a problem but the HSE will pay from its own resources to bring in management consultants to explain to people how to do their jobs? It is ridiculous. The money is needed for the 429 patients on trolleys throughout the country today.

Some hospitals are better than others in dealing with budgetary constraints put upon them and one of these is Sligo General Hospital and I would like the Minister to acknowledge this. Today, only two patients are on trolleys in this hospital. It has managed its budgetary situation exceptionally well in recent months. It is probably not there yet but it is getting there. The former Deputy, Eamon Scanlon, announced Sligo General Hospital was one of the 15 hospitals short-listed to be a colonoscopy centre. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, went further and announced it as one of the 12 centres for colonoscopy screening throughout the country. When will this screening begin and from where is the money coming? It is estimated it will cost the hospital €250,000 to bring its facilities up to scratch and another €250,000 a year to run the service. Capital expenditure is required and no doubt if the money is available within HSE resources for outside management consultants I am sure it is there to facilitate this service.

The Minister stated that small hospitals throughout the country will not be downgraded in any way. It is appropriate to use the example of a hospital in the Leas-Chathaoirleach's constituency. What does the future hold for Bantry General Hospital? Will the medical assessment unit continue to operate on a 24-7 basis? Will similar hospitals continue to operate in the manner outlined by the Minister at the beginning of this debate?

I thank the Leader of the House for facilitating this debate. I love what he is doing with the Seanad and he knows I am his biggest fan. However, a general debate on health requires 20 minutes for spokespersons. I know the Minister has a busy schedule and that there is an election on today but two hours is not sufficient for a general debate on health.

I acknowledged Finola Cassidy of the Irish Thalidomide Association who is in the Visitors Gallery. The issue was first raised in the House almost 50 years ago in 1962. As stated in the programme for Government to which the Labour Party contributed, I hope the issue can be dealt with and advanced decisively.