Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleague, Deputy Ivana Bacik, on the issue of white collar crime. It shows that when the events occurred, we did not have the necessary capacity to deal with them. We now need to ensure such events will not occur again and that we will have people adequately trained in how to prepare such an investigation and how to present the findings to the courts in order that they can be dealt with properly in a fair manner. Deputy Ivana Bacik has raised a very important point. We need the Minister to come to the House to discuss the issue and tell us what his future plans are for dealing with it. Do we have sufficient resources provided? Do we have enough trained people? If not, they need to acquire the necessary skills.

There is an issue with maternity services going back to 2003 when a report clearly set out the number of medical consultants and specialists needed. There has been very slow development with totally inadequate numbers. In particular, when we go back to what happened in Portlaoise, the number of deliveries had doubled within a very short period, but the HSE did not respond adequately to make sure there were proper staffing levels and the proper number of qualified personnel in place. That is the problem we have in the health service. It fails to respond in a timely manner when things change. It is important to ensure that what occurred there will never be allowed to occur again. Overall, in maternity services, I understand reaching the target, or getting anywhere near it, of having the number of suitably qualified staff and consultants required will take us anything up to ten years as a result of employing ten new consultants per annum. I am not even sure whether that number will be reached this year. The Minister for Health should come to the House to deal with this issue and let us know what the plans are in the next five to ten years in order that we will not have to wait for a new report to come out in 12 months's time on the issue.