A voluntary group in Kilkenny had more success than the Department of Health in sending children to London for heart surgery, the Dail was told.

Mr Phil Hogan (FG, Carlow-Kilkenny) said the Minister for Health and his officials should "hang their heads in shame" that a local voluntary group could make more progress in access to heart care for children than the officials and statutory bodies.

Criticising what he called the "lack of urgency" of the Minister, Mr Martin, in arranging the necessary places in hospital for children requiring heart surgery, Mr Hogan called for the Minister to fully investigate why Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, was unable to cope with the demand for children to go to London for heart surgery.

He also called for the removal of the "scandalous bureaucracy that is obviously preventing our health system in dealing with these matters urgently". He asked was it right that such local funding groups were necessary.

The Children's Heart Care Action Group had developed out of a trust fund, set up to get a 1 1/2year-old boy to hospital in London for treatment for a hole in his heart. He had been "languishing on a waiting list" and there had been serious concerns that he would not survive while waiting for the treatment. The group had also been successful in a number of other cases.

The Minister of State for Health, Ms Mary Hanafin, said she was aware of the concern over waiting times for children needing heart surgery. A plan would be agreed this month between the hospital and the Eastern Regional Health Authority which would set out a comprehensive approach to the management of paediatric cardiac surgery. It would also include a full assessment of the opportunities for sending children to the UK and other countries.