To cite the opinion that Cavan General Hospital has been viewed at any time as dysfunctional is unacceptable and outrageous. This further burdening of Cavan General Hospital will surely render it impossible for it to function properly. That is a by-product of the decision announced yesterday.

Is the Taoiseach aware that last evening there were 26 patients in the surgical ward of Monaghan General Hospital and that these were inpatients who stayed throughout last night? Does the Taoiseach envisage a situation whereby that or a comparable number presenting on any given day will be transported by ambulance from Monaghan General Hospital to Cavan General Hospital at 5 p.m. at the close of business in Monaghan General Hospital from 1 January next? Can even an extra 26 patients be accommodated in Cavan General Hospital as of 1 January? The Cavan-Monaghan hospital group manager, Chris Lyons, said it will take 12 to 18 months to kit out the new ward accommodation in Cavan General Hospital and for it to be up and running. Where will the 26 patients in Monaghan General Hospital be accommodated in the period up to when Cavan General Hospital will be ready to receive that number?

Is the Taoiseach aware that in recent days heavy fog and freezing conditions have made the journey time from Monaghan to Cavan much more difficult and that for people from north Monaghan in particular it will be impossible to reach Cavan within the critical hour in order that they are stabilised and properly seen to? What if the treatment room in Monaghan General Hospital——

The Deputy must conclude.

I am doing so. What if the treatment room in Monaghan General Hospital is another by-product of these proposals and that it will also close after 5 p.m. until 9 a.m. the following morning with no service on a Saturday or Sunday? That possibility has been cited.

My last point——

The Deputy must conclude. He is well over time.

I am concluding. Professor Niall O'Higgins, president of the RCSI, in his defence of yesterday's proposals, quoted international research on the basis of patient safety. The fact is that that research was administrative in nature and not based on clinical data, which is critical to what is happening in Monaghan General Hospital. It is totally disingenuous and misleading.

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

I ask the Taoiseach again to intervene in Monaghan General Hospital's case to ensure that this further travesty is ended now.

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

Otherwise, how many deaths will it take for him, the Tánaiste and others to take heed of our position?

In case the Deputy took me up wrong, I wish to clarify that I said that the Royal College of Surgeons issued a report on surgical services at Cavan General Hospital which it described as dysfunctional. I did not say that; it was stated by the Royal College of Surgeons following its examination of the matter.

The Cavan-Monaghan hospital group has come together and decided that acute surgery will be carried out at Cavan General Hospital. There will be an increase in the number of consultants. The HSE is recruiting three new permanent consultant surgeons to replace the locums there. This will bring to five the number of consultants who will be there. Surgical day cases will be dealt with in Monaghan General Hospital and other patients will continue to be treated there. This is about the surgical services. Consultant surgeons will be in that hospital during the day. The acute cases will go to Cavan General Hospital in the evening time.

Is that the solution, to transfer them all to Cavan General Hospital?

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

Yesterday it was said that an eminent consultant had given advice to which I had not listened. Today, I advise what the eminent Royal College of Surgeons considers is the best option for the people of Monaghan.

Does it know that?

That is its view.

It is a disgrace.

If the Deputy does not agree with that——

I totally and absolutely reject it.

I am simply relaying what it said. It represents all consultant surgeons in the country.

It does not. The surgeons in Monaghan and Cavan hospitals disagree with it.

The Deputy went four minutes over the time allocated in submitting his question. I ask him to allow the Taoiseach the courtesy of replying without interruption.

I merely stated that the Royal College of Surgeons certify every consultant surgeon in the country. This report is its major examination into this matter. I have no doubt that if Members have a different view, they will take it up with their own organisation. This examination has been under way since November 2004. Therefore, I am sure they have already submitted their views. This is the presentation of proposals that the Royal College of Surgeons believe is the best. In drawing up the arrangements, it stated that it was guided by the requirements of patient safety, good clinical care and service to the community.