Dail Report: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern rejected the Europe-wide survey on the State's health services during heated exchanges with the Opposition.
He also defended the Government's record and cohesion and repeated that the general election was a year away.
In a strong defence of the health services, Mr Ahern said that life expectancy had increased from 75 years to 78 between 1990 and 2002.
"The country's child mortality rate and maternity system, for example, are second to none.
"I am happy to stand here and defend our health service against a crowd of geniuses who did not even bother to get facts. That is the point."
Mr Ahern said that according to the report, a great deal of the data on which it was based dated from 1997.
"The survey states that its conclusion should be considered 'with great care'," the Taoiseach added.
"It makes it clear that one part of its analysis is 'an academic exercise' and 'certainly lacks scientific support'. That is what it says.
"Those who compiled the report did not make any contact with the permanent representatives in Brussels on the matter.
"The Department of Health and Children has been unable so far to find any evidence of requests for information."
Mr Ahern noted that the report made it clear that cross-national comparisons of healthcare systems, outcomes and delivery were notoriously difficult and were based on standardised statistical indications and data.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that Ireland's health service was second last in Europe.
"Only Lithuania performed more poorly than we did," he added.
On the survey's score card, this country finished last of 26 and that report showed up rampant MRSA infection, Mr Kenny said.
He said those who carried out the survey knew, and the State knew, that the current expenditure of €13 billion on health was subsidising problems rather than solving them.
Mr Ahern said that health spending per capita in Ireland grew, in real terms, by an average of 9.1 per cent annually between 1999 and 2004, one of the fastest growing rates of all OECD countries and significantly higher than the average of 5.2 per cent annually.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte referred to the "apparent disintegration" of the Government and what signal it sent to those hardworking families who were on the road at 6.30am.
He asked what people could expect from "a divided, dysfunctional and out of touch Government in which Ministers, even in the same party, will not talk to each other."
It was a Government with its own backbenchers in revolt, he added.
Mr Rabbitte said that people were working longer and harder than they ever did before and they wanted the Government to sort out the hospitals, deal with the criminals, drug abuse, anti-social behaviour and the everyday problems they encountered in their communities.
The Taoiseach said people were heartened to see the State had an annual growth rate of 6 per cent and 7 per cent in a series of years.
"They are heartened employment continues to grow, taxes have been reduced, much resources have gone into building new hospitals and improving the education services at first, second and third level."
He added that Mr Rabbitte would "have to wait a year to see what will happen in a democratic election, and in the meantime I will deal with factual situations, not Deputy Rabbitte's rant".
Mr Ahern said that his colleagues and those of the Tánaiste wanted to successfully implement policies and would continue to do so after the next election.
Mr Rabbitte, he added, was by nature a negative person with negative policies.