Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept all of that. As we face into a very difficult winter, the Irish people will find it immoral if there are private hospitals advertising for patients while accident and emergency departments in public hospitals are jammed with people on trolleys. The Minister needs to deal with this. I intend to keep raising it. It is completely immoral for this to be happening in 2016 and 2017. I know the limitations of the private hospitals, and I agree with the Minister in that regard, but I emphasise that they have some capacity to deal with people and thereby ensure we do not have backlogs in public hospitals. If we do not look at initiatives to solve this in advance, we will be facing into hell in such hospitals. This is just one component that could help to avoid that.