Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the same subject, which is also a favourite pastime of mine, I am alarmed by that development. It is the wrong process and the wrong direction at the wrong time. If anything, we need an increase in that area in the public health sector. I can think of a number of our public long-stay hospitals where, compared to ten or 15 years ago, the number of patients has halved. The latter was unnecessary, in my view, because there was no basis for it. The theory behind it, which was put to me on a number of occasions, was that it was more cost-effective to do it. I have not seen the evidence for that. What often happens is that seriously dependent patients end up in the public sector in any event, and understandably so. The quality of the services and facilities available in the public system in most of our hospitals - I acknowledge that standards have to be kept up at all times - is excellent and unequalled anywhere else. I do not see the reason for that approach. We need more of those beds for two reasons: first, to meet the demographic needs; and, second, to alleviate overcrowding in acute hospitals.