Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the amendment to the Order of Business. While I do not doubt anybody's commitment and wish to see the situation in accident and emergency departments throughout the country improved, how regular is this story? What is the problem? We seem to be investing a lot of resources but we are always running under budget. One wonders about the need to look to the future at all times. We need to look to the past in one way, which is in the context of the general management of hospitals. When we had a matron and a county surgeon, one individual was all powerful and reached into every department and facet, whereas these days administration is administration, domestic is domestic, clinical is clinical and management is somewhere else, and perhaps the solution is within this. There can be no excuses not to have a debate. We are at a critical stage. It is not about political blame when we face into January and February and the months which are traditionally difficult with flu and other illnesses.

I call for an urgent debate, as I did last week, on the development, or decline, of rural Ireland. The debate needs to be on the protection of our culture. When we look around our nation today, one item of news really captures what is going on, which is that Bank of Ireland will prohibit over-the-counter cash withdrawals under €700. Representative groups of the elderly community have said this is of serious concern. We are moving away from our entire culture. Rural Garda stations and post offices have been closed, but far from saving money we are murdering our very culture. Cultural decay and rural decline are endemic throughout the country. It is a paperless, cashless and, it would seem, a peopleless economy where Bank of Ireland is taking the lead and expecting people of all ages to make lodgements to machines. We need to look at the value of our culture and not just the cost. A debate in this regard is urgent.