Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I make no apology for returning to the crisis in accident and emergency units, especially given the inadequacy of the Taoiseach's response yesterday. Surely the Taoiseach appreciates that for an elderly woman retained five days and five nights on a trolley in the Mater Hospital it is very little comfort when he rhymes off to the House his version of statistics about hospitals where he claims only a small number of patients are on trolleys. He stated that in the case of Monaghan General Hospital, nobody was retained on a trolley until Deputy Ó Caoláin informed him there is no accident and emergency department in that hospital.

Does the Taoiseach think the nurses who are members of the INO, SIPTU and other trade unions, are out protesting during their lunch hour behind picket boards because there is no problem? Does he accept that the crisis is acute in hospitals such as Tallaght, Beaumont, the Mater, St. Vincent's, Wexford, Galway and others? Does he agree that in a country where so much money has been raised in taxes, elderly people who have paid their taxes all their lives are entitled to be accommodated in hospital care with a minimum of dignity and this is being denied them? Fianna Fáil backbenchers have already started to mutter behind her back about the Tánaiste's competence. This is fine coming from a party whose super-clean hero has escaped leaving a legacy of €2 billion behind him and more health strategies and reports than the fiction department of Eason's.

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