Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in acknowledging and welcoming the work by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, over the past 36 hours in respect of obtaining a ban on discards. While it is not a 100% ban, nonetheless it is a ban that will be introduced over a period of time. In the pelagic sector there will be a ban on discards from 1 January 2015 and from 1 January 2016 in respect of other fishing stocks. That is to be welcomed. The agreement must now go to the European Parliament and hopefully it will receive support there.

The Higgins report has been mentioned by our health spokesperson, Senator MacSharry, and Senator Byrne. I will not go into the detail of the report but I have grave concerns. There appears to be an agenda to transfer the responsibility for centralising services to a group to be established under the direction of the Minister for Health. That will affect hospitals in peripheral areas. The north west has the largest geographical catchment area. Letterkenny General Hospital is the seventh busiest hospital in respect of inpatient numbers nationally. That hospital does not have regional hospital status and, as a result, it receives a smaller budget than other competing hospitals. There is no university in the north west. Due to those two factors, the hospital in Letterkenny will suffer. There will be a focused centralisation of services at the closest point of contact with a university which, in this instance, is Galway. That is a retrograde step. It is a passing the buck exercise by the Minister for Health.

Finally, I refer to this morning's radio interview on "Morning Ireland" with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, regarding oil and gas exploration. A totally unacceptable position was adopted by the Minister, who lectured the Irish Parliament and people prior to the last general election that there was total exploitation of natural oil and gas resources. Now he has turned gamekeeper from poacher. He has totally disregarded a cross-party report produced by the natural resources and agriculture committee over 12 months ago. He put it on a shelf and it is now gathering dust. He is kicking to touch on this issue. The report makes clear recommendations on the licensing and taxation regime and it is time the Minister got off the fence and implemented it. It is amazing. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, appears to have changed the spots on his skin since the last election with regard to this issue. That says a great deal about the Labour Party and where this Government is going.