asked the Minister for Health the current situation in relation to the use of public facilities, for private use, by consultants in regional hospitals and if he will make a statement on the matter.

As I informed the Deputy on 19 May 1983 I am considering the question of the use by consultants of public hospital equipment in their treatment of fee paying private patients. I am not yet in a position, however, to make a statement about the matter.

At the time to which the Minister refers he was unable to quantify in terms of numbers or cost the level of usage by consultants of public facilities for private use in our hospitals. In view of the cutbacks in other areas of health care has the Minister, even at this stage, quantified such usage?

I have a fair idea of what it is. I have had a number of reviews undertaken and a fair amount of information has been obtained as to the current situation. This matter encompasses considerably the question of common contract. I have strong views in that regard and I assure the Deputy that this contentious issue will be dealt with by me in the most effective way at the appropriate time in 1984.

In correspondence that I have received from the Southern Health Board, and of which I have made the Minister aware, they indicated that they kept no record of the level of usage in this area. Are health boards instructed now to monitor all private usage by consultants of public equipment and staff of health boards?

I understand that a number of them are monitoring the situation and those who are not will be doing so before long.

Will the Minister direct health boards to undertake such monitoring? It is my information that a number of them are still not doing so.

It is not merely a question of the health boards. There is the question also of the use by consultants for private use of very expensive equipment in hospitals. However, I must complete this examination in the context of the common contract. If I had to negotiate that common contract all over again I would not do so in the way in which some of my predecessors negotiated it.

Is the Minister serious in attempting to quantify the usage of all facilities in hospitals and differentiating as between private and public usage? Is this physically and mentally possible?

In a situation in which in our hospitals and institutions we are spending £10 million per week, it is incumbent on me, and should have been incumbent on my predecessors, to examine the major components of expenditure. A major question arises as to the usage for private purposes by consultants in health board hospitals of the equipment, the facilities and the staff of those hospitals if the consultants are not paying a penny towards the cost involved.

The remaining questions will appear on tomorrow's Order Paper.