The health service is in a shambles. People have totally lost confidence in the service in County Kerry. There have been no hip replacement or orthopaedic procedures carried out in County Kerry for at least four months. People who need a hip or knee replacement are in significant pain. The ear, nose and throat section of University Hospital Kerry in Tralee is currently closed. People awaiting a hospital appointment in Cork are choking and afraid to sleep at night. Each day 25 patients on trolleys are awaiting attention in University Hospital Kerry. People are waiting to see consultants who are not even there. We have a Taoiseach, a Tánaiste, a Minister for Health, three Ministers of State at the Department of Health and a Government, but we have no proper health service for the people of County Kerry. That is unfair. The Government is allowing the HSE to blackguard the people of County Kerry and not give vulnerable people the service they deserve. Deputy Leo Varadkar is the Taoiseach and ultimately responsible for this situation, but he is doing nothing about it. The health service is failing the people I represent.

I will confine my remarks to addressing the issue of orthopaedic surgery in County Kerry. All operations were stopped for several months as a result of an infection control issue which was resolved a number of weeks ago.

I spoke to the chief executive officer, CEO, of the group last Monday week but, as yet, operations have not resumed. I ask the Taoiseach to look into this to ensure a speedy return to orthopaedic surgery.

I am afraid I do not have specific information relating to University Hospital Kerry in front of me but I will certainly ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to provide the information to the Deputies from Kerry, or perhaps it could be raised as a Topical Issue matter.

For the information of the House, when it comes to operations and procedures, it is one of the areas where we are seeing some real progress. The number of people waiting for a procedure - hips, eyes, cataracts, knees and angiograms - is down on this time last year and 59% of patients are now waiting less than six months for those procedures, so it is one of the areas, unlike outpatients, unfortunately, where we are seeing some real progress.

I can also confirm to the House that, this morning, the Cabinet approved the appointment in principle of a new chairperson for the new board of the Health Service Executive, Ciarán Devane, who is a former member of the board of NHS England, and CEO of the British Council. He is somebody who has experience heading up a cancer charity and has degrees from both University College Dublin and George Washington University. I believe it is a very positive appointment and he will go before the Committee on Health for confirmation.

Appointments for-----

Please, Deputy. I call Deputy Eamon Ryan.