I want to ask the Taoiseach about the plan to reform the trauma care services in this country. I understand we will have two major trauma hospitals - one in Dublin and one in Cork. I accept we cannot have 26 hospitals giving the service throughout the country as we have now, but it is a major mistake - I do not know what the Taoiseach thinks - that we will not have a major trauma hospital in the west and north west of the country, which has a population of 750,000. We should have a major trauma centre in Galway at least. What is the Taoiseach's opinion of that? Does he agree that we should have three major trauma hospitals and just not the two?

The truth is we do not have a single major trauma hospital in Ireland at present. We have our resources spread across 26 different hospitals and the victims of major trauma do not get the service that they should. For example, cardiothoracic surgery is done in the Mater and head surgery - neurosurgery - is done in Beaumont. If a person has both injuries, clearly he or she cannot separate his body into two parts and be in the two hospitals at the same time. Cork University Hospital is the only one that can cover most of these specialties. In a country with a population of less than 5 million, we can probably only sustain two. What is in the major trauma strategy is to have one in Dublin, one in Cork and a satellite one in Galway as well, which is what the experts in this field believe is the best outcome and the best option for Ireland.