Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There should be clarification from the Minister on this at a very early date. Contrary to what has been said, as I understand it there is not a proposal before the Minister yet and he has not received the report. Therefore, until such time as he gets it, I do not think he can give us the answers we are looking for, but I believe that at the earliest possible date the Minister should provide clarification on this matter.

We have a lot of criticism of the health service. Some of it is justified, but we also need to understand the volume of people going through the system. I have repeated this figure previously. There are 63,000 people a week going through outpatient departments between all our hospitals. Another 23,000 a week go through our accident and emergency departments. An impression is being given that nothing at all is being done. In addition, life expectancy in this country has increased by more than two years in the past ten years.There have been improvements in the health service. For example, there has been a huge increase in the number of day-case procedures being carried. There have been many good developments. However, on this particular issue, the Minister needs to clarify the position at the earliest possible date because people are unduly concerned. A proposal was put forward to the effect that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI, would consider this matter. The relevant report has obviously been leaked and it is now time to clarify matters. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister for Health come before us at the earliest possible opportunity in order that he might provide that clarification. Obviously, the Minister must get the report first. The sooner he does so, the sooner we can obtain clarification.