I wish to respond to the Leader of the Opposition's earlier comments, which are utter hypocrisy, given the performance of her party's leader when he was Minister for Health. He poured billions into creating the HSE, with which we are now stuck and which is not performing.

With respect, her question was to the Leader who will reply in due course.

That is fine. Nonetheless, I believe I have an entitlement to comment, just like any other Senator. I could say a lot of things about said party leader when he was Minister, including the large Travers report which was lost behind the back of a radiator, but I will not waste precious time.

Two days ago I pointed out that no part of the health service operated in isolation. While we have terrible trouble with waiting times and patients on trolleys, that is very much influenced by what happens in primary care. Early diagnosis and intervention and prevention are critical, as is what happens following treatment in terms of facilities for people to go home. Most people want to go home and live in their own homes. In that context, I refer to the need for a day hospital in Swords to serve the people of north County Dublin. The Mater hospital and Beaumont Hospital are large regional hospitals with national and regional specialties and services. Very often, day surgery spaces are taken up by acute admissions from the night before. If there was a separate day hospital in Swords which was accessible to over 100,000 people and beyond, many of these procedures, such as hernia and gallbladder surgery, cataract removal, plastic surgery, etc. could take place. They are being successfully carried out in places such as Ennis, Louth County Hospital, Roscommon and Nenagh. I call on the Minister to give consideration to this suggestion. He might come before the House at some point to discuss it.

On some of the comments made earlier, in his defence, the Minister is working to fix the problems he has inherited in the health service, many of them due to serious cutbacks. It was Fianna Fáil which when in power started to remove beds from the system and which ran the country over the cliff, with Deputy Micheál Martin as one of the major co-pilots on that flight and descent.

The Senator had an opportunity to solve that problem, but he did not take it.

I did, but on the contrary, with very little money, we achieved quite a lot. Nonetheless-----

In the Senator's opinion.

The Senator will have to pursue that matter at another time. He cannot pursue it on the Order of Business.

I will not listen to the Leader of the Opposition or any of her allies-----

The Senator is well over time.

I may be, for which I apologise-----

The Senator has one minute of injury time.

-----but there is a solution to the problem which lies in having more day hospitals. One is particularly needed in Swords and Fingal to look after both older and younger people.