Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach's comments were specifically directed at nurses, doctors and diagnostic staff and I think referred very specifically to the acute setting. I welcome Mr. Connaghan's sentiment about healthcare workers which we share. There is no difficulty with the members in this room acknowledging the hard work that is done. We were not the people pointing fingers, but there were no additional staff on leave when the trolley numbers went over 700. The question was in the context of the numbers waiting on trolleys and specifically with regard to the acute hospital setting and the accident and emergency departments.