Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Could I ask one other question, and Dr. Molloy can then come back with his contribution? I ask our guests to comment on a phenomenon which strikes me. When I hear about the constant overcrowding in our emergency departments, I am simultaneously listening to the radio in the car and hearing advertisements to come to the Beacon or the Blackrock Clinic, etc., to receive emergency care there. The clear implication is that if one is in the public system, one is going to a war zone in one of our public hospitals where one will be on a trolley for hours and will be dealing with stressed staff, but if one goes to a private hospital for emergency care and can afford to do so, one will not have a problem. Is that the reality? To what extent does that reality say something about where we could get the additional capacity to resolve the problem we have in our public health system?