Unfortunately, in this House we are all aware of the ongoing waiting lists for our citizens, many of them elderly, who are seeking outpatient procedures or surgeries. These include hip or knee replacements etc.

Unfortunately, people have languished on the waiting lists for years and many of them have suffered pain and discomfort, which interfered with their quality of life.

The cross-border health directive is one avenue that has been pursued by many citizens and it has proved quite successful. People can avail of the option to get their procedure carried out much sooner north of the Border or, indeed, abroad. Like many of my colleagues in this House, I have been contacted many times on the cross-border health directive. The initiative has received more air time and more people have availed of it in recent times, so much so that it has been estimated that the workload of the people working in that office has increased by 1,200%. I was shocked to learn that there are only 11 people working on all of the applications made to the office by people living in this country. Clearly, more staff must be recruited to ensure that the scheme functions properly. Our focus should be on the people who have waited years for medical procedures. We must ensure that the scheme runs efficiently and that the people who wish to avail of the scheme can do so in a timely manner.

I understand that the staffing shortage has been raised with the HSE management at national level. I respectively ask the Leader to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister for Health. As I have said, the people on the lists have waited and suffered in silence for years, many of whom are elderly. I ask the Leader to urge the Minister to deploy more staff to the office, thus ensuring that more citizens can have medical procedures carried out as efficiently as possible.

I want to raise an issue related to CervicalCheck and the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine. It is unfortunate that some of the people who were to the forefront criticising the HPV vaccine programme are now to the forefront in criticising the errors in the CervicalCheck scheme. Interestingly, two of the individuals concerned appeared on a television programme recently, yet neither of them replied to the questions asked about this very issue. It is not good to have people talk out of two sides of their mouths on health issues. On the one hand, supporting people without medical evidence to support what they are saying, and on the other hand, criticising every time an issue arises when not all of the facts have been brought to the fore.

On a positive note, there is a proposal to roll out HPV testing. I believe it is important that the scheme is brought forward. Cervical smear tests will be done in the normal way but the analysis will be conducted in an automated fashion and, therefore, the risk of human error will be completely removed. The testing has the potential to reduce false negatives by between 10% and 15% and increase the detection rate for cervical cancer by 30%. The Minister for Health has talked about the positive aspects of HPV testing. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House so that he can outline the timeline for introducing HPV testing. I want the Minister to also ensure that we have enough skilled people in place in this country to roll out the scheme and that we fast-track its introduction, thus restoring confidence in the health programme. I urge the Leader to give the issue an airing in this House at an early date.

I am somewhat disappointed by recent events in the debate on the eighth amendment. I had felt and hoped all along that we would have a disciplined, moderate and civilised debate. I felt that we had that up to now but there has definitely been a huge dip in standards over the past weekend and in recent days.

Last night's debate was most unedifying and was a setback for reasoned thinking. I do not believe any side gained ground, to be honest. We finished with the debate in this Chamber and in the Lower House. We did our job, which was to make a decision and hand it over to the people. That is the reason I have refrained from speaking on the issue in the Chamber since then. However, in football terms, when one sees a team playing the man and not the ball one knows that team is losing. I object very strongly to the attempted vilification of one medical expert, Dr. Peter Boylan.

Hear, hear.

That is obviously part of the game plan for the remainder of the debate. It is most unfair. Medical opinion is divided on this, as is legal opinion, political opinion and family opinions. However, we do not attack the opposite person, try to vilify him in a personal way and try to bring his character and credentials into dispute. That should not happen.

I love to listen to reasoned debate from the people on the opposite side to me. If I hear that Professor Binchy is on the television I will make every effort to listen to him with respect, even though I do not agree with him. There was a great exchange of letters between him and Senator Bacik in The Irish Times which was really edifying. That is the level of debate I like.

I hope Members will not use the next two weeks as an opportunity to come into the Chamber to take pot shots at individuals who are not here to defend themselves. Let us leave it to the people. They have enough information at this stage and I believe they know what they are doing.