Today the PPARS scandal is running at €186 million and counting. This €186 million is a spectacular achievement of waste by any standard but we should not be too surprised. The Progressive Democrats, after all, is the party that gets things done. We should look at a few things it has not done. I refer to neurosurgery where the computers used to guide brain operations keep crashing and where for lack of money the equipment has not been replaced for years. It is a case of PPARS, €186 million, neurosurgery, nil. We are talking about men and women with bleeds to the brain, brain tumours, aneurysms, brain injury following accidents, severely debilitating diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Ireland is the only country in Europe that does not provide brain stimulation for people living with Parkinson's. Seconds count in all of these conditions. General practitioners will say it is not just access to neurosurgery and neurology services that are years too late and often do not exist at all. The GP in County Wexford was promised an appointment in three weeks for a woman with epilepsy but was still waiting after three years. It is not just the patients and their families who are at breaking point; it is the state of neurosurgery itself which is now catastrophic.

Mr. Chris Pidgeon says the service is on the verge of collapse, that there is a shortage of consultants, a shortage of beds and that crucial equipment is out of date and regularly breaks down. He believes the state of neurosurgery is worse now than it was 30 years ago. In September 2005, there were 426 people waiting for surgery in Beaumont Hospital, more than half of that number had waited for a year. I remind the Tánaiste of the promise to end waiting lists in two years. I ask the Tánaiste to inform the House — on second thoughts, I ask the Tánaiste not to tell the Dáil because he treats this House with derision and contempt anyway; he should tell the camera because he loves the camera. He should, through the camera lens, tell the people waiting for neurosurgery treatment what his Government has done in the past ten years to deal with this problem.

It is obvious the Deputy got out on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

The Tánaiste without interruption.

Investment in our health services has risen to more than €12.75 billion in 2006. Ireland's public spending on health has grown at one of the highest rates in the OECD in recent years. Irish spending on health has gone from 15% below the OECD average in 1997, when the Deputies opposite were in power, to 17% above the OECD average in 2003. This is notwithstanding the fact that Ireland has a younger age structure than many other countries.

With respect to human resources, 120,000 people work full time or part-time in our public health service. Between 1997 and the end of last September, there was an increase of 33,672 staff or almost 50% in whole-time equivalent terms. Latest figures show 44.9% more medical and dental personnel in the health service, 27.6% or 7,500 more nurses in the health service, 30% or 7,727 more health and social care professionals.

They are working under great strain.

The number of approved consultant posts has increased by 720 or 56% in the period since the Deputy was in office and today.

It should be noted that this Government has provided the health service with record resources.

Record bad results.

This Government also introduced the National Treatment Purchase Fund which has been an outstanding success. People may criticise one area of the health service or another but the record shows that Ireland as a society has gone from a situation which in 1997, when Fine Gael, Labour and the Democratic Left were in office, spent 15% below the OECD average on health, to the point where we now spend considerably above it. This shows the extent of the commitment of this Government——

The Tánaiste should answer Deputy Kenny's question.

Allow the Tánaiste without interruption.

—— to improving our health system.

We have introduced the medical card for people over the age of 70 years and we have also introduced——

The Tánaiste was against it.

——GP visit cards and 200,000 extra GP visit cards are now available.

Nobody got them.

All the recent accident and emergency figures show conclusively that there are improvements right across the service on a daily basis. The health service is rapidly becoming one of the most effective health services in the European Union.

Allow the Tánaiste without interruption. Deputy Kenny was allowed make his contribution in silence. The Tánaiste is entitled to the same courtesy when he is making a reply.

He is not allowed ramble on.

He should be reminded of the question.

I understand a complaint was recently made to the Ceann Comhairle that I gave out about people asking questions and then trying to shout me down. It happens constantly in this House. Deputy Stagg and others are practitioners of the business of asking a question and then shouting the respondent down.

The Minister is wasting time as well as money.

The Minister is like a dumb microphone.

The Minister is like Brendan Grace.

I regret such tactics.

The Tánaiste is good at it himself.

It demeans the Irish Parliament. I think the Opposition is making a collective disgrace of itself and if it does not want to hear the answers I will not go any further.

The Tánaiste is a fantasist.

The Minister sounded like the Minister for Foreign Affairs on "Morning Ireland".

I give the Tánaiste two out of ten for that answer. I asked him about neurosurgery but not once did he mention the word. His answer was about as lethal as the picture of the Minister for Defence sitting on the edge of a helicopter that appeared in this morning's newspapers. It is a good job the helicopter did not take off.

The Deputy should stick to the script and not let his mind wander.

Deputy O'Dea should stick to the Sunday Independent.

The Tánaiste speaks of others as being handcuffed to mediocrity. The answer he has just given is appalling in respect of the 425 people waiting for brain surgery and treatment in Beaumont Hospital.

Those people do not matter.

The Tánaiste has not dealt through his camera with the person from Wexford who was to be given an appointment within three weeks but was not given it within three years. The Tánaiste has not referred to the five HSE reports which speak of severe deficiencies in the equipment to deal with neurosurgical treatments. He bluffed about HSE numbers and the numbers in the health system. Two years ago Professor Drumm told my parliamentary party that of the 125,000 health service employees, 3,500 did not know what their jobs or functions were yet they were to be paid for life. Yet through the camera the Tánaiste has told me that 425 people must listen to that rubbish he gave out. The HSE is bulging with well-intentioned career people who are staggering through the halls of inefficiency, bureaucracy and red tape.

The Tánaiste was so clear in his response when he took a page from a departmental file about the dismissal of Mr. Frank Connolly. He said he needed to speak to the public about an issue of public importance.

The Deputy's time has concluded. He is moving onto another question and he should only ask one topical question.

This is an issue of public importance and the Tánaiste did not refer to it once in his reply.

He does not know the answer.

The Progressive Democrats styles itself as the party that gets things done. Will the Tánaiste tell the nation what it has done about neurosurgery in the last ten years?

The Tánaiste should answer it now with one word.

The Deputy seems to be engaging in amateur theatricals. He has come into this House——

Like the Tánaiste does every Friday with a dumb microphone.

The shouting has started again. That is the end of it.

They will not let him answer. They will not let the man speak.

I take it the Tánaiste has no answer.

If Deputies do not want to afford a Member of the House when they are called by the Chair——

We want an answer.

He does not have one.

The Deputy should resume his seat when the Chair is speaking. The Chair is here to keep order.

And to make sure that questions are answered.

No. That is not a function of a Chair anywhere in the world. We are not getting into an argument on that. When called by the Chair, every Member of this House is entitled to the courtesy of being heard. That is a function of every parliamentary democracy anywhere in the world. The Chair has requested Members to show the normal courtesy and allow the Tánaiste to reply.

And the Tánaiste should reply.

The Chair has two choices——

The Tánaiste is not representing the Taoiseach. He should answer the question. He did not once mention the word "neurosurgery".

Deputy Kenny, resume your seat when the Chair is on its feet. The Chair has two choices. The Chair can suspend Members for being disorderly. The Chair does not want to take that route, but it will be left with no choice if the disruption continues.

What about Government accountability?

The Tánaiste should answer the question.

On a point of order, the Tánaiste was asked a question to which there is a reply. The House is entitled to know his reply.

That is not a point of order.

Huffing and throwing his toys out of his pram does not constitute an answer.

There cannot be a point of order on Leaders' Questions.

I wish to raise a point of order. Under the rulings of this House, I am entitled to ask a leader's question. I have asked the Tánaiste two questions. He did not mention the word "neurosurgery" once in his reply.

That is an assumption not a point of order.

My point of order is that the Tánaiste is well able to indulge himself in amateur theatrics.

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

The Tánaiste should answer the question. What has the Tánaiste and his Government done for neurosurgery in the past ten years? The point is the Tánaiste is not able to answer the question and does not represent the Taoiseach.

He does not have an answer.

I did not know that there was any question the Tánaiste could not answer.

We have moved on from the last question and we will hear the Deputy's question now.