Dáil debates

Tuesday, 26 April 2005

4:00 pm

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Last week I asked whether the Taoiseach is an ostrich and of course he did not reply. His reply to the questions from Deputy Rabbitte a few moments ago confirms the answer to that question. He told the House on this most pressing issue of accident and emergency units that where there is nothing, there is nothing.

When he said there was zero people on trolleys in Monaghan General Hospital he showed that he knows nothing about the reality despite the fact that I, and others in this House, have continually told him there is no accident and emergency unit at Monaghan General Hospital. That is why there are no patients on trolleys at that hospital.

At the start of this week 249 patients were on trolleys in accident and emergency departments. If the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children were seriously addressing this crisis they would recognise that hospitals such as Monaghan General Hospital, and others for which the Taoiseach said there were zero people on trolleys, have beds beyond their requirement that are not occupied and should be used to relieve the overcrowding in neighbouring hospitals. The Taoiseach must recognise the issue in Monaghan General Hospital relates to the overcrowding and intolerable situation at Cavan General Hospital.

Is the Taoiseach aware that the Irish Nurses Organisation has called on him to do something specific, not just to intervene? It has called on him to declare a national emergency in regard to our health services. Is he conscious of that position and will he spell out exactly what he and the Tánaiste are doing to address this crisis instead of repeatedly trundling out the same mishmash reply prepared for him in his Department, with the aid of the Department of Health and Children? The Taoiseach must face up to the reality and give the answers we and the people who are suffering need.

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