Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Following our day of double apology I wish to return to the situation in accident and emergency units around the country. After nine years in power with access to unprecedented funding the Government has failed miserably to provide the most basic frontline health services for people.

The Taoiseach is fond of quoting statistics, but he will be disappointed to hear that yesterday 314 people were on trolleys and chairs in accident and emergency units around the country. What is the status of the ten-point plan introduced by the Tánaiste, which was intended to deliver real improvements in accident and emergency units by last November? Last weekend Professor Drumm, chief executive of the Health Service Executive, said it would be at least two years before the problem could be resolved and that the situation now is worse than it was three and four years ago.

The Government has spent almost €60 billion on health services, a tripling of expenditure, but the service in accident and emergency units appears to be going backwards. Given that the same number of people are attending accident and emergency units as in 1998, can the Taoiseach offer any credible explanation for the behaviour in those units?

What is the Taoiseach's response to the shocking findings of a recent survey of accident and emergency units, including that in nine hospitals there were 900 assaults on staff, patients and visitors in these units? These attacks occurred when staff tried to break up fights, and when they were assaulted by patients high on drugs or intoxicated with alcohol. In one case a nurse was held at knife-point, in another a patient was stabbed in a cubicle and in a third a nurse was kicked in the abdomen.

The frontline staff in accident and emergency units must bear the brunt of the failure of the Government's commitment and promises to provide the safety and services that the people should expect. They deserve better than this. What measures will the Taoiseach take to see that this situation improves? Does he accept Professor Drumm's explanation that nothing will happen to bring about any real improvement for the next two years? Are these appalling and shocking stories to continue day after day, of people sitting in plastic chairs as closely packed as the seats in this Chamber, inaccessible to the comfort of seeing their relations, friends or families? Surely in 2006 we should be able to do better in accident and emergency units.

See this speech in context