Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What land is the Tánaiste living in? He can walk into any of our hospitals any day of the week, any week of the year and he will see patients on trolleys or in chairs who have been admitted to hospital but cannot get into a bed. Why? Because the beds do not exist. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, told the Government that we need 1,000 beds right now and approximately 300 to 400 beds every single year. The Minister for Health said he was going to deliver 1,500 rapid beds. The Department of Health even put out an expression of interest.

The Government funded not one single euro for any additional bed despite the fact that it has broken new records in terms of the numbers of people overcrowding our hospitals in accident and emergency departments at the start of this year when more than 900 patients were without a bed and lying on trolleys. Those are the facts. Since the Minister of Health took office, our waiting lists have been growing with 40,000 more people languishing on waiting lists. We have people who are waiting for critical surgeries who are not able to get them year after year because the investment is not being made. The Department of Health and HSE told the Government what was needed to stand still. To leave the crisis we have at the same level next year, they told the Government what was needed, and it funded half of it.

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