I want to ask the Taoiseach about the apparent disintegration of the Government and what signal that sends out to those hard-working families who are on the road at 6.30 a.m. How can those people expect a divided, dysfunctional and out of touch——

Labour Party.

——Government in which Ministers, even in the same party, will not talk to each other and whose backbenchers are in revolt, to address the issues of concern to them?

What about the 1980s?

Does the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, want to make his maiden speech at this juncture? If he wants to make an intervention, he should make it properly and I will give way to him.

Deputy Rabbitte is just showing his ignorance. I made my maiden speech in this House long before he made his.

Another dissident emerges from the backbenches.

To which party does Deputy Finian McGrath belong?

People are interested in whether their children will get a place in school this autumn. They are concerned about class sizes or their mother being left on a hospital trolley. They are concerned about the drugs misuse epidemic, now worse than it was when Veronica Guerin was murdered. They are concerned about energy resources, spiralling house prices, inflation, interest rates, neighbourhood safety, anti-social behaviour and gangland killings. How can a Government, in such disarray for the past month, address these issues? In The Irish Times this morning, I read the headline, “Ahern set to back new FF backbench group”. I thought there were only 16 rebels but apparently there are 17.

And they have the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, now.

The Taoiseach will now be a member of the back bench committee in revolt. Just because we have enjoyed more than a dozen years of economic growth, the Taoiseach is of the view no problems need be attended to. Of course, we have enjoyed a dozen years of growth, but we have serious problems that must be confronted. Judging from the Taoiseach's response to Deputy Kenny, his view of the authors of the report that states Ireland is second only in health services to Lithuania is that they are talking rubbish and we can dismiss it. It only demonstrates the extent to which the Taoiseach is out of touch.

Hear, hear.

Half of what the Taoiseach told Deputy Kenny about medical cards and other issues is not in accordance with the facts. To dismiss the authors of a report that claims the health service is second only to Lithuania and argue they are talking through their hats shows the Government is simply out of touch, especially when one considers the large amounts of money pumped into the system after nine years of this Government.

If that is the Taoiseach's conviction, will he seek a renewal of his mandate? Will he instead limp into the summer recess with the Government in disarray? Government partners are not talking to each other, party seniors describe their Ministers as dysfunctional, worsening problems need to be attended to and yet the Taoiseach tells the House breezily that people are living longer. I suppose he will claim credit for that too. They are certainly living longer on trolleys.

I hope I get the same attention as my colleagues have given to Deputy Rabbitte.

The Taoiseach certainly will.

Deputy Rabbitte is dead right; people are concerned about the economy. They are heartened to see the country has had an annual growth rate of 6% and 7% over a series of years. They are heartened that employment continues to grow, taxes have been reduced, much resources have gone into building new hospitals and improving the education services at first, second and third level. They are heartened at the rate of house-building and the improvement in the standards of our energy resources sustainability. They are, however, concerned that this will all change, especially if Deputy Rabbitte gets his hands on power.

Hear, hear — like the last time he was in power.

I am concerned about that too.

This is like Dr. Strangelove.

I am not prepared to consider a report that makes blatant errors about the health service. As I have already said, the report states a general practitioner service does not exist. The survey asked whether a patient can have a same day service from their family doctor. To this the survey stated in Ireland it is a blanket "no". That is wrong. We have a GP service that will see patients on a same-day basis.

I have given the facts from people working in Irish hospitals and not those from an academic study in Sweden. While patients have said they are happy with services and hospitals, they are not with accident and emergency services. We have addressed this issue and invested significant resources in resolving it. Let us not take from the success in reducing waiting times for operations, which had dramatically fallen in 2002 from what they were in 1997.

People are on waiting lists for waiting lists.

It is wrong for the survey to conclude that Ireland has a severe waiting lists problems. We do not have one.

We do have a problem.

We have made substantial progress.

People are waiting 15 months for treatment. The Taoiseach is telling lies.

The Deputy must withdraw the word "lies".

I will not.

The Deputy will withdraw the word or leave the House.

It is a wonder he is in the House at all.

Only if the Taoiseach will clarify that people are waiting months on waiting lists.

The Deputy must withdraw the word unequivocally or he will leave the House.

The Taoiseach is using mistruths. I withdraw the word "lies". People are on waiting lists for operations for 16 months.

They are waiting three years in some areas.

The Deputy should allow the Taoiseach to respond.

I wish to answer Deputy Rabbitte. In 1997 three quarters of adults waiting for cardiac surgery waited for well over a year. Deputy Rabbitte was at the Cabinet table when that was allowed to happen. Matters got worse in the period in which the Deputy was at the Cabinet table. The waiting time for coronary——

That was ten years ago.

Please let me answer Deputy Rabbitte.

This is a history lesson.

The waiting time for a coronary angiogram is now no more than two months. A total of 11% of people wait no more than a year for cardiac thoracic surgery and most patients wait for only a few months. The number of patients waiting for cancer treatment is also down. I accept there are problems and difficulties. I am aware we have problems with gangland killings in some areas where drug dealers are fighting each other for territory and for drugs.

People are afraid to open their front doors.

I commend the Garda for their daily successes in dealing with these issues. The Government is investing significant effort and resources in this area. I will not go into all the statistics of where that puts us internationally. We are working on these issues. I will not take it from Deputy Rabbitte that a Government I lead and colleagues and backbenchers who work extraordinarily hard are out of touch.

Hear, hear.

This Government is determined to work to complete its mandate to continue to build a successful country. The Deputy may have an alternative strategy, but the only thing I know about the Mullingar strategy is that the Government has bypassed Mullingar in terms of roads and the people will do the same with the Deputy's policies.

Hear, hear.

Deputy Rabbitte had his Sunday outing last Sunday, which I was glad to see, but it showed the huge contradictions on the age of consent. Perhaps he will tell the people about some of these issues. In the meantime the Government will deal with party activities in a structured, organised way unlike the heavy-handed way the Deputy dealt with some issues in the past in terms of disciplining party activities. The Tánaiste and I are well capable of dealing with these issues in a democratic and open manner. Deputy Rabbitte will have to wait a year to see what will happen in a democratic election, and in the meantime I will deal with factual situations, not Deputy Rabbitte's rant.

Hear, hear.

We are losing our temper.

Are they all upset over there?

Deputy Rabbitte should be allowed to speak without interruption.

The Taoiseach needs a rest. He instanced decisions taken when I was at the Cabinet table, but I remind him that last week he eulogised a man with whom he shared the Cabinet table, who shut 22 hospitals between 1987 and 1989. I am not sure what a stroll down memory lane does to address the issues confronting people today. The Taoiseach is fearful about what will happen to the country when I get my hands on the levers of power, but the only thing about which he is really fearful is that he will not be in there with me.

I think the Taoiseach said, "if".

End of round two.

Deputy Rabbitte should be allowed to speak without interruption, please.

We will leave the hyena laughs out of it for the moment. I will return to the issues about which the backbenchers are concerned. It is clear that they are the same issues I have been raising in this House, which, according to their spokesman, they bring to parliamentary party meetings and, to quote him: "they never get any further". Now the Taoiseach is trying to tell us he welcomes this revolt on the backbenches and that he will talk to them about what kind of committee they will put in place.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Haughey said, this is the worst Government in the history of the State. He said it cannot do anything right. To bear out Mr. Haughey, today we read that, for example, the Government cannot even pay the refunds to people wrongly charged in nursing homes. It turns out that it was thought the job could be outsourced to India. Everybody knows that data protection laws apply.

The Deputy's time has concluded.

Everybody knows that the outsourcing of such a job must be certified by the European Commission. Now the Government finds it cannot make the payments and it must go back to the drawing board. The Government appears unable to make any simple decision or do any of the simple things well. When that happens to a Government, the best thing the Taoiseach can do if he is really concerned about the interests of the country, as distinct from his own interests and those of his backbenchers who are running scared right around the country, is go to the people now, not after the summer. We have fallen back to 25th place on all these issues, not just in regard to the health services. We have fallen back similarly in the area of broadband.

The Deputy's time has concluded.

The Taoiseach referred to people who pay taxes. There are many tax compliant citizens who pay more tax than was bargained for in the budget, but what about the abuse of tax avoidance schemes by super-earners? We have been told for the past five or six years that these loopholes would be shut off. They have not been shut off and the situation is worsening. Ordinary people earning ordinary incomes try to make ends meet.

The Deputy is moving on to a different question. He has already gone almost three minutes over time.

They are working longer and harder than they ever did before and they want the Government to sort out the hospitals, deal with criminals, drug abuse, anti-social behaviour and the everyday problems they encounter in their communities. Instead of that we get a squabbling Government where in its deepest crisis the Taoiseach fled the country and left them at sixes and sevens. He talks to me about the age of consent when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform came into this House on Tuesday and said the age should be 16——

I ask the Deputy to give way to the Taoiseach.

——and on Wednesday, said it should be 17. The Government is at sixes and sevens on every issue of significance that arises. How can the Taoiseach tell me he is not out of touch?

I ask the Deputy to give way to the Taoiseach.

The people know he is out of touch and he will find out that sooner or later.

If the Deputy is not happy with the Standing Order governing Leaders' Questions, he should change it.

We cannot change it.

Deputy Rabbitte referred to the Government being out of touch and at sixes and sevens, but he covered eight Departments in his questions. I am happy to reply to questions on any Department, as I do every day.

The Deputy's attack on the policy of the former, distinguished member of the Labour Party, Barry Desmond, who introduced the hospital closure system, is uncalled for.

Another history lesson.

Name one.

For those Members who were not around in the 1980s, they will remember the announcements that were made. I think that is uncalled for.

The old Labour Party.

The Taoiseach should be allowed to speak without interruption, please.

I am pleased to see Deputy Rabbitte has changed his mind about the former leader of this party, Mr. Haughey.

He was in another party, or was it a party?

The Health Service Executive signed a contract with KPMG-McCann Fitzgerald to administer the public long-stay charges repayment scheme. The contract sum is based on the number of repayments processed by the company and will be capped at €15 million, exclusive of VAT. The scheme will make repayments to approximately 20,000 patients and the estates of between 40,000 and 50,000 people who were wrongly charged for publicly funded long-stay care. All the EU directives and tender requirements have been complied with by the HSE in the awarding of this contract. As usual, Deputy Rabbitte is entirely wrong.

It is understood from the Health Service Executive that a very small proportion of the work will be undertaken by a company based outside the European Union. This work is of a data entry nature and will not involve the operation of helplines, the provision of information or related matters. All work of this nature will be performed within the State. Deputy Rabbitte is completely wrong.

The Health (Repayments Scheme) Act, which was signed by the President last week, provides a clear legal framework for the system. Priority for repayment will be given to those who are still alive. The repayment system incorporates many features designed to make it more attractive than litigation. The overall cost of the scheme will be €1 billion. Because of the way we are proceeding efficiently within the regulations and supporting the HSE, we will be able to repay about €340 million this year. Deputy Rabbitte obviously believes we should not do that.

It is only one year late.

I should not answer questions relating to internal Government party issues but I assure Deputy Rabbitte that both my colleagues and those of the Tánaiste want to successfully implement policies — and continue to do so after the next election — that will ensure this country continues to thrive. This will be done through the creation of jobs, continued strong economic growth and the building of a modern society with modern infrastructure.

The Taoiseach is rattled. It is getting to him.

He will need counselling.

The Taoiseach should be allowed to continue without interruption.

Deputy Rabbitte has covered six or seven areas. However, we will continue as we have done——

I hope the Government does. That is the best news I have heard today.

——by providing resources to recruit more gardaí and more teachers. There are now 14,000 gardaí and 12,000 teachers. There is also an extensive programme of capital investment. I assure Deputy Rabbitte that we will continue to work with the same determination we have always shown. Deputy Rabbitte will continue in Opposition, as he has done for most of his political life, growling about these issues. We will continue to work successfully. If Deputy Rabbitte ever gets his way, I will wish him well in it. In the meantime, however, you should acknowledge, as you never do, anything that has successfully been done anywhere. You are by nature, a negative person with negative policies.

So speaks the socialist. Alone he stands.

I have called Deputy Joe Higgins.