Deputy Micheál Martin allocated €10 million for the emergency department in Roscommon County Hospital.

Will the Senator, please, allow the Leader to respond?

Senator Terry Leyden's display this afternoon on the Order of Business was quite poor.

That is the Leader's opinion.

If the Senator wants to look at Deputy Micheál Martin's record, I will certainly do so with him.

I will not sit idly by-----

I will do so with the Senator, no bother, because Deputy Micheál Martin was the architect of the HSE and the person who created the organisation that now runs the health system.

He allocated €10 million.

The HSE is a failed entity. Therefore, let us have that debate.

The Deputy is in and the Senator is out.

The Leader should not take the bait; he should respect the Chair.

Senator Terry Leyden is continuing his poor judgment. I will not have that debate with him and not go to his level.

At this stage the Leader has gone below my level.

When Senator Leyden goes low, I will go high.

The Leader must be joking.

Will Senator Terry Leyden, please, allow the Leader to conclude?

The numbers on waiting lists are unacceptable. They are human beings, our fellow citizens and deserve better from the health system. It is time for an holistic change in the use of theatre space. Senator Colette Kelleher referred to Cork University Maternity Hospital. I very much welcome the appointment of Professor John Higgins to his new role. I support and wish him well and hope to see a change in the use of theatre space. We also need to see changes in the use of hospital beds. If at all possible, we need to see more beds being opened. Equally, consultants must look at their work practices, how they operate and do business. As Senator Paudie Coffey rightly pointed out, money is being allocated, but it is not just about resources. How is money allocated and where is it spent? Ireland has the second highest level of spending in the OECD on health services. That is something at which we need to look and change. The role of the HSE must be altered. The allocation for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, this year will allow it to utilise capacity in the private acute hospital sector to provide treatment for those who have been waiting the longest. The HSE has been asked to submit an action plan to improve waiting lists in public acute hospitals for inpatient, day case and outpatient services. The HSE and the NTPF must work strategically and collaboratively. The Minister for Health has taken steps and while the action taken to date has been far too little, it is important that we work to end the blight of long waiting times for those who need to be seen. To go back to my fundamental point, they deserve better. They are not numbers or statistics but people.

Senator Catherine Ardagh raised the issue of female genital mutilation in the context of the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012. I share her views and agree that we must work collaboratively to end this awful scourge. I will be happy to work with her on the issue and thank her for highlighting it.

Senator Joan Freeman raised the issue of child mental health and specifically mental health service waiting lists. I do not see people being treated as second class citizens by anyone involved in the health system but mental health is an issue we must continue to push to the fore. I will be happy to invite the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Helen McEntee, who was in the House last week to come again to discuss the issue. She has secured more posts and increased funding for mental health services.

Senator Rose Conway-Walsh referred to an industrial dispute in County Mayo. It is a matter for the mechanisms of the State, specifically the Workplace Relations Commission. The Senator could raise it as a Commencement matter, but it is important that the mechanisms of the State be used to reach a resolution.

Senator John Dolan referred to an article in the Sunday Independent, but I would not believe everything I read in that newspaper because it does not always get everything right.