The health strategy consists of 121 separate actions which it is proposed to implement up to 2010 at a great cost over that period. I stated what has been done to date and, as I pointed out in the recent article in the Irish Medical Times, when one gets the benefit of treatment in the health services, it is of a very high standard.
There has been an 80% increase in acute hospital activity since 1997 and day cases have increased by almost 50% in the same period, which points to a great increase in productivity. There is extra money, extra people and extra procedures are being carried out. The difficulties I perceive, with which I think the Deputies will concur, is that for the amount of money invested in a relatively short time – an increase of 125% – there is a corresponding increase in dissatisfaction with the health service. How did it go from being not higher than No. 8 in 1997 to top of the agenda in 2001 to 2002, despite a doubling of the budget? That is an obvious question to pose. In view of the amount of money spent in recent years I believe we will begin to see a benefit from it. We are now above the European average and our dependency ratio is lower than the rest of Europe so we should not have to spend as much as other European countries.