Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not need to temper it. I am taking advantage of what is called parliamentary privilege to tell the truth. I am not abusing privilege, but I am using it to say that the Minister lied to the people of Sligo, the Taoiseach lied to the people of Sligo, and the Tánaiste lied to the people of Sligo and the people of Roscommon. I have an issue with the commitment given by the Minister yesterday being truthful. I do not accept it as being enough.

I want the detail of the preliminary report. I want the terms of reference given to Health Partnership and I want to know what are its draft recommendations. The people of Ireland and the people of the north-west region are entitled to know, if Fine Gael and the Labour Party are secretly intending to dismantle the maternity services of the north west, what are the terms of reference to do so. For example, the first term of reference that ought to be given to any consultancy group for the delivery of any health service in this country is that services are delivered on a geographical quality basis. That has not happened in the past, in spite of the Minister's lies on cancer services. I understand that I am using parliamentary privilege, but I am most certainly not abusing it-----