Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. He mentioned 26,000 additional staff but he admitted in the end that we have had huge population growth. The problem is, as he said, the Government is cutting costs. It is certainly cutting costs and I told him where all the costs were cut and where people are finding it extremely difficult to access services. Up to 1 million people are on waiting lists, some of whom are waiting two, three, four or five years for simple procedures. That is where the problem is. The new Silverwood unit was opened in Clonakilty hospital last week, which patients are being moved into. That is positive but the staff have come to me and told me they were under extreme pressure. I acted on that and I want to find out whether the old units that were closed will be filled with the same number of people as before. It is the same with the mental health unit in Bantry, which we were led to believe would be completed in January 2024. It has been put off until July. With the children's hospital in Dublin getting an increased budget of €510 million this week, bringing the total build cost to €2.24 billion, although it was initially estimated to cost €1.73 billion,-----

See this speech in context