Health: The Health Service Executive (HSE) was criticised by Killarney town councillor and nurse Sheila Dickson.
Ms Dickson (Kerry South) said everybody who cared about the health service wanted radical developments coupled with investment in the primary-care services.
"However, as I inquired more into the 300 new health posts, it appears there are more questions than answers from the HSE."
Issues such as reporting structures, location and workload, relationships with general practitioners, the role of the public health nurse, and the employment status of the practised nurse had yet to be discussed, agreed and finalised, said Ms Dickson.
"As a nurse working on the ground I have seen to date a reform of the management structure which has seen an increase in the number of management members instead of the expected decrease. For me, my colleagues, my patients, we have seen no reform."
Emer Brennan (Monaghan) said health was a vexed subject in her county.
"In Monaghan we are permanently at the centre of the debate on reform of the health services. On the face of it it is a question of local versus regional, of downgrading versus centralisation. But nothing is ever that black and white."
She added that if the health system was not working for people, change was required. Those involved should be consulted. "Who made reform a bad word? In the northeast the North Eastern Health Board did. Belligerent and stubborn, dictatorial and patronising, the HSE's predecessor slaughtered their own credibility with the people, the customers of their service."
Frank Maher (Louth) said there had been "scandal after scandal" in the northeast over recent years, culminating in the report on the death of Pat Joe Walsh. That report should be obligatory reading for everybody involved in public affairs in the State.
"However, perhaps the greatest scandal of all is that we do not have a designated regional hospital in the area. The easy option was always taken to move patients to Dublin. But the Dublin hospitals are under enough pressure and now we have to play catch-up. It is an indictment of everybody who has been involved in the health service for the past 30 years.
"The present hospital in Drogheda is the regional hospital by default. It is over-worked, underresourced, and with an enormous workload. Our job is to make sure we provide that regional hospital with adequate facilities."
Raymond Sweeney (Galway East) said the Minister for Health should direct the HSE to promote accessible, integrated community health centres in towns and cities.
"Basic physical access to healthcare is a right which must be championed.
"Many health centres are situated in high-density settings, without adjacent parking, with no access for people in wheelchairs or parents pushing prams."
Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan criticised the Opposition.
"We are clear on one thing: Labour and Fine Gael are totally at odds on the issue of private medicine. Labour, it seems, is against private hospitals, and Fine Gael is in favour of private hospitals so long as they are kept miles away from any public hospital."
