I noted the "H" word was the only one that did not pass the Taoiseach's lips on Saturday night. There was no reference at all of hospitals, not to mention private hospitals and the Government's plan to build super private clinics on the grounds of public hospitals. There is not a single Member in any week of the year who does not deal with a number of harrowing cases of people languishing in queues for public hospital care because of the inequality at the heart of the health service intrinsic in the two-tier system.

The two-tier health system will be worsened by the Harney plan, endorsed by the Cabinet and supported by the Taoiseach. Up to now it was believed that people would be treated equally in accident and emergency departments. Now there will be a two-tier accident and emergency system.

Dr. James Binchy, speaking on behalf of doctors at a recent conference, stated that the following had emerged during discussions on new contract talks for consultants:

Under such a system [the system of co-location], patients who opt to be treated privately will be admitted directly to the co-located private facility, while those who cannot afford private medicine will continue to languish in A&E Departments while awaiting a bed in the public system.

The decision as to which patients will get a hospital bed will be made on the basis of the ability to pay rather than clinical need, Dr. Binchy said.

When I asked the Taoiseach if he was going ahead with signing these contracts before the election, he denied he knew anything about contracts. When I came back to it last week he stated that he thought it was going ahead, but he did not know, on 16 April. Will he further worsen the two-tier divide in the health service by signing contracts, for which he has no mandate, for which he did not seek a mandate, which are not in the programme for Government and on which he is proceeding on the eve of a general election? Is that still the position of his Government?

Deputy Rabbitte raised three points. First, he is incorrect to state I did not raise the hospital issue and the health service issue. Last week I gave extensive detail on the health issue at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, including that we are bringing in a national screening programme for breast cancer——

One could not watch it all.

It is not operational.

Allow the Taoiseach without interruption.

——extending the facilities in a number of areas of treatments, improving the urgent care centre——

Answer the question.

That was part of the question.

People are waiting two years.

I also referred to prostate cancer services. These will be important services——

We do not believe him.

Let him answer.

——including finalising the remaining beds that we need for public hospitals. That, of course, includes dealing with the issue of co-location. The position is that I am not signing any contracts. The HSE, on eight contracts——

Pontius Pilate.

What is he there for?

If they do not want to hear what is happening, there is no point in me speaking.

Could I point out to Members that this is Deputy Rabbitte's question and he is entitled to hear the answer to it?

The Taoiseach is giving a non-answer.

I ask Members to remain silent and allow that to happen. The Taoiseach without interruption, please.

Even if the Deputy is not interested.

He will not sign any more blank cheques.

I apologise if I am provoking the Opposition. The Government is trying to make available, against the wishes of the Opposition, more beds so that more public patients will be involved in hospitals.

It is helping private business.

They have been given away to the Taoiseach's rich friends.

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

The books are being cooked.

Does Deputy Allen wish to leave the House?

The HSE is responsible for that. It seems desirable to this side of the House to reduce waiting lists even further than the reduction by half we achieved in recent years and to eliminate them if possible. To do that, we will need more beds.

You said you would do it in two years.

If the Deputy would co-operate with us, we might do so more quickly.

Five years ago, it was to be done in two years.

Deputy Stagg does not want to hear what I have to say about public hospital beds. Currently there are several thousand private beds in public hospitals and there is no access for public patients. We are endeavouring to build co-located private hospitals so that those private beds can move out of public hospitals and be designated private hospitals. The same consultants would be able to work in their public and private capacities but we would have more access for public patients. Accident and emergency units would not be affected. Deputy Rabbitte knows that the Minister for Health and Children issued a statement on this matter last week. It will not affect accident and emergency services.

I accept the Deputy is opposed to this but we are trying to make more public hospitals available in the short term to people who are on public waiting lists. With the increases in population and specialisation, we need more public hospitals, and this is one way of meeting that. It is additional to all the new construction projects under way and the several hospitals which have been commissioned in various locations. I do not see why anyone would be opposed to this. It will help public patients and the efficiency of our consultants.

With regard to what consultants will say about the industrial relations discussions on their contract, I wish Mark Connaughton and the other participants well over the next few weeks.

Public accident and emergency units are not located in private hospitals. Deputy Rabbitte does himself no good by trying to make the case that we will have accident and emergency units in private hospitals for the first time in the history of the State. We do not have accident and emergency units in Blackrock Clinic, the Mater Private Hospital, the Bon Secours Hospital or the private hospitals in Cork and Waterford. That has never happened nor is it proposed. We are talking about putting public beds into public hospitals and have co-located private beds. That is the proposal.

I am not the one who is saying this. Accident and emergency consultants have said they are extremely disturbed by proposals that would mean their patients would automatically get a bed because they are privately insured. Under the co-location model, beds for emergency admissions will now be allocated on the basis of ability to pay.

That is not the case.

It is not I who is saying this, but the consultants who are struggling in accident and emergency units.

They are wrong.

There is as much concern behind the Taoiseach as there is on this side of the House about how he is worsening the divide in the health services.

The Progressive Democrats is drawing the Taoiseach into a strange one.

It is not acceptable for the Taoiseach to come in here with sleeveen, weasel words about the HSE.

That is not nice.

The Taoiseach is blaming the HSE rather than the Government or himself. The HSE is being required to do this at the dictate of the Minister for Health and Children. That is the fact of the matter.

That is not happening.

I do not know who is performing the ventriloquism but the Minister either knows nothing about the matter or he is in denial, just as the Taoiseach is in denial about the contracts.

Deputy Rabbitte is misleading the House, as usual.

I ask the Minister to allow Deputy Rabbitte to continue without interruption.

The Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, did not seek any mandate for this policy. He did not put it in the programme for Government. The Taoiseach knows there will be no accident and emergency services in the private hospitals. The consultants are saying that patients will be transferred out of casualty units on the basis of whether they have private insurance. That is how serious it is for the Fianna Fáil backbenchers who will rendez-vous with distressed and concerned people in the coming weeks.

The Deputy's time has concluded.

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle. While the Taoiseach refuses to answer the question of whether he will sign the contracts, even if he does sign them, we will do everything we can to examine the tax sections that allow the write-down in capital allowances to the investors who will build these super private clinics. Investors who put their money into these super private clinics should be well advised that if it is legally possible — I think a Government always has the sovereign right to change a tax section — we will make those changes if this side of the House is returned to Government.

Hear, hear.

Is that also Fine Gael policy?

Deputy Rabbitte made a unilateral decision. Does Fine Gael agree with it?

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

I am aware of Deputy Roche's policies.

Does Deputy Bruton agree?

I ask Members on both sides of the House to allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

Deputy Rabbitte is entitled to say that if he is elected to power he will close the tax incentives for private hospitals. There are no super private hospitals. They are the same tax incentives that have given us 7,500 nursing home units. If his policy is opposed to what we have created successfully, he is entitled to do that.

Deputy Rabbitte may say that I am using weasel, sleeveen words, but that does not take away from the facts of the case. The consultants are negotiating a common contract and they know the law well, as should the Deputy. Road traffic accidents and other emergency services will pass through accident and emergency units and people will continue to go to public hospitals. The Minister for Health and Children made that clear last week. That is not the issue. I believe, although the Deputy does not, we have a mandate for this. We have a mandate to build additional private hospitals and public hospitals.

Rubbish.

I ask the Deputy to listen.

Where did you get it?

We said we would provide additional public beds.

Exactly, but the Government did not provide them.

This is a way of doing so. Deputy Rabbitte is trying to block the Government hand over fist for a different industrial relations reason——

Rubbish.

——which I am aware of because I have listened to the union side in this. The Deputy is opposing the Government's efforts to provide additional public beds.

That is hysterical stuff.

That is the end result of his campaign.

Not at all.

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

Do not be ridiculous.

It is not ridiculous, it is a fact. The HSE is involved in negotiations and Deputy Rabbitte should know but clearly does not — as is more likely, he wants to mislead — that the entire health Vote is in the hands of the HSE.

He is passing the buck.

The HSE is the negotiator on the issue. That is one of its functions and, unfortunately, Deputy Rabbitte sought to misinterpret the matter.

The Taoiseach should take responsibility for once.

It is amazing that the Deputy needs so much help. Is Deputy Allen and Fine Gael opposed to co-location?

I am opposed to making business out of health.

Will he also change the tax law?

I do not want big business to be made from health.

Deputy Allen should stop interrupting.

I answered the Taoiseach's question.

Is the Deputy opposed to changing the tax law?

Fine Gael has already made that clear.

I am opposed to making big business out of health.

Deputy Allen will have to leave the House if he continues to interrupt.

He answered a question from the Taoiseach.

Is Fine Gael opposed to private medicine?

I do not care who asked the question.

Is it opposed to co-located beds?

It is not his question, it is the Labour leader's question.

Will it change the tax regulations? Is that Fine Gael's policy?

The Fine Gael Party——

I ask Deputies to desist from interrupting.

On a point of order, I was asked a question by the Taoiseach. The Fine Gael Party is opposed to the sale of public lands at public hospitals for private hospitals.

Hear, hear.

I ask Deputy Kenny to sit down.

That is not the same thing.

That is a different issue.

I ask the Taoiseach to return to Deputy Rabbitte's question.

Here we have two alternative views.

Sale or lease, we had that last week from Deputy Kenny.

I ask the Minister to allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

Weasel words.