I can understand the Taoiseach disowning the Hanly report but I cannot understand him seeking to rewrite it.

Hear, hear.

What he is saying is the exact opposite of what is contained in the Hanly report. Is the Taoiseach standing over pressing ahead with Hanly or not? Is Hanly engaged on a fool's errand, doing further work when the Taoiseach has already abandoned the thrust of his policy? What does the Taoiseach mean when he says "medical cover will be provided"? Does that mean that an accident and emergency consultant will be available to patients brought in through casualty, or does it not?

Will it apply 24 hours a day?

Does it mean a GP, a junior hospital doctor or a triage nurse? What does it mean? Why create smokescreens such as saying he is content that there will be medical cover. What exactly does that mean?

I listen very carefully to what the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, says and I get plenty of opportunities to hear him, because there are two press releases per day. The last time he was putting stilts at the Red Cow roundabout and now, when the works are within four or five months of being finished, he will start a new project that will take three years. He blames his predecessor. She says he should shut up and get on with it. This is the array of promises that was made at the weekend. The Taoiseach fooled the people in June 2002 but he will not be able to fool them a second time.

I do not think anyone is fooling anyone but I am not going to be fooled either by Deputy Rabbitte trying to rewrite Hanly. Hanly does not recommend centralisation of acute hospital care into a few large hospitals or downgrading of hospitals.

That is completely untrue.

Hanly argues for the decentralisation——

This is ludicrous.

The Deputy should read it.

Who should read it?

Deputy McManus, your leader asked a question, he is entitled to the courtesy of hearing the reply. I ask the Deputy——

We are entitled to some serious answers.

It is obvious the Labour Party gets excited when the truth is put forward in Hanly, because that party is involved in a misrepresentation of the facts. That party is running around the country trying to set up committees which give misrepresentation.

Hanly is dead.

Hanly does not recommend centralisation of acute hospital care into a few large hospitals or the downgrading of hospitals. Hanly argues for the decentralisation of a large proportion of elective acute care and other services currently delivered in large acute hospitals to smaller local hospitals.

What is elective acute care?

This means investment and development of local hospitals.

What is elective acute care?

It is being claimed that the Hanly report ignored or created insufficient emphasis on access or services for patients outside the major population areas. The Deputies should continue to interrupt me. That will not change Hanly. Hanly offers an important role for every hospital providing a quality service for patients. It offers a balance between access for all patients and quality of treatment for the seriously injured patient.

The Government is suffering from elective acuteness.

That Deputy Rabbitte asks a question about accident and emergency consultants in every hospital in the country shows his lack of knowledge. There are only a handful of hospitals in the entire country that have an accident and emergency consultant; it is medical cover. The Deputy would not say something like that if he knew anything about accident and emergency units of hospitals.

I did not, I asked about medical cover. What is the Taoiseach providing?

Twenty four hour medical cover.

What does that mean?

If Deputy McManus does not keep quiet for Deputy Joe Higgins I will have to take appropriate action.

It is a sheet to pull over one's head.