Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

There are no plans to downgrade the excellent work being done in Letterkenny General Hospital. I am very hopeful that we will be able to roll out the clinical care programme for diabetes. As the Senator has said, the explosion in the number of cases in diabetes is probably the biggest threat facing the health service. It is a huge challenge to address that, to concentrate on prevention and to provide for management of chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, at primary care level. That is the way we want to go and I hope that if funding is provided, we can start on that important programme next year. We cannot afford not to, given the threat posed by the disease. Clearly, Letterkenny General Hospital will play a critical role in the roll-out of the programme.