I agree with Senator Darragh O'Brien on accident and emergency departments, but we need to examine how we deal with them. I spoke to a junior doctor who is now based in Perth where the system for dealing with accidents and emergencies appears to be totally different. Another person I spoke to recently was admitted to hospital through an accident and emergency department. The person was in the accident and emergency department for eight hours. Everyone knew what was wrong with the person and that a bed was available in the ward, but they had to wait for test results to come back from the laboratory before the person could be moved from the accident and emergency department to the ward. This sounds like a total lack of organisation and structure. We should look at how we manage accident and emergency departments. We also need to look at the times consultants are on. We need expertise on the shop floor, particularly at weekends, and this does not appear to be happening. This has gone through three or four different Ministers at this stage. We have had problems in accident and emergency departments but have not done any restructuring. Work has been done in one or two hospitals, in Kilkenny in particular, but in other areas we have been continuing with the same process for the past 20 years and we do not seem to have learned any lessons. It is time to look at this. There must be a better system. We should look at how other jurisdictions and hospitals deal with it and bring about the change required rather than leaving people there for 24 hours and 48 hours, which is totally unnecessary.

I second the amendment to the Order of Business. While I do not doubt anybody's commitment and wish to see the situation in accident and emergency departments throughout the country improved, how regular is this story? What is the problem? We seem to be investing a lot of resources but we are always running under budget. One wonders about the need to look to the future at all times. We need to look to the past in one way, which is in the context of the general management of hospitals. When we had a matron and a county surgeon, one individual was all powerful and reached into every department and facet, whereas these days administration is administration, domestic is domestic, clinical is clinical and management is somewhere else, and perhaps the solution is within this. There can be no excuses not to have a debate. We are at a critical stage. It is not about political blame when we face into January and February and the months which are traditionally difficult with flu and other illnesses.

I call for an urgent debate, as I did last week, on the development, or decline, of rural Ireland. The debate needs to be on the protection of our culture. When we look around our nation today, one item of news really captures what is going on, which is that Bank of Ireland will prohibit over-the-counter cash withdrawals under €700. Representative groups of the elderly community have said this is of serious concern. We are moving away from our entire culture. Rural Garda stations and post offices have been closed, but far from saving money we are murdering our very culture. Cultural decay and rural decline are endemic throughout the country. It is a paperless, cashless and, it would seem, a peopleless economy where Bank of Ireland is taking the lead and expecting people of all ages to make lodgements to machines. We need to look at the value of our culture and not just the cost. A debate in this regard is urgent.