Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I will not delay the meeting unduly but I want to say that I will certainly support the Supplementary Estimate. The figure of €680 million is significant and there is an overrun of €510 million in the HSE but we in this committee predicted as much last year. To some extent it is a case of here we go again. Many of us feel we were almost ridiculed when we raised issues that the Minister now highlights and it is no surprise to us that a Supplementary Estimate of this magnitude is before us today in December 2014.

I hope the Minister understands that the huge cutbacks in the health service, of around €3.5 billion and 12,000 members of staff in recent years, have put the system under huge pressure. The Irish health service is close to crisis on a daily basis with significant difficulties across the board. I have read the Minister's statement but my own experience tells me that much of this relates to the general hospital system, of which I know a little. In layman's terms, the scenario painted by the Minister in his statement relates closely to the experience at South Tipperary General Hospital, my local hospital. I managed that hospital for 21 years and it is a progressive institution, as it has always been, as there is good co-operation throughout the various categories of staff. Staff members at consultant level are good and everyone puts their shoulders to the wheel but they are all under huge pressure. The picture painted by the Minister is what happens on a daily basis at South Tipperary General Hospital because activity levels have been growing for some years.

The hospital is now to all intents and purposes a type of regional hospital with significant admissions from north Tipperary and parts of counties Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork and Limerick. It is running at approximately 120% capacity on a daily basis. That creates huge pressures, one of which is on the accident and emergency department. In 2013, a total of 3,100 patients had to be placed on trolleys in the department, which was up from 750 in 2011. Delayed discharges are also a problem. The hospital put forward various plans to tackle this, including the provision of additional consultant staff in the accident and emergency department. Thankfully, that has been approved and temporary appointments will be made shortly. However, additional nursing and support staff and beds are also required.

The HSE, locally and regionally, made a recommendation to the Minister to open 12 step down beds in Our Lady's Hospital, Cashel. Nothing has happened in this regard over the past 12 months. I welcome the initiative relating to additional community intervention teams because that was another proposal put forward by hospital management and I hope they will be put in place in south Tipperary.

We have been here previously and we predicted this would happen last year. This is a significant Supplementary Estimate and I will support the Minister but next year's Estimate is unlikely to be much different from this year's. Budgets for general hospitals have overrun by €270 million this year. Next year's allocation will not be adequate either and a further Supplementary Estimate will be required.

It is the first time I have met the Minister at the committee or in the House since his appointment. I congratulate him and wish him well. If he would like to see the picture he has painted in practice, I would invite him to South Tipperary General Hospital because it is a microcosm of what he has outlined-----