Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

——-or even come close. In my opinion and in the opinion of many people, they are working to extreme opposites and this is clearly the case.

Has the Taoiseach seen the report by the Nenagh Hospital Action Group? Has he taken on board the clear information that it indicates the importance of smaller hospitals in the provision of accident and emergency care? Has he taken on board the findings of that report? Does he recognise that the smaller hospitals, including Nenagh and Monaghan General Hospital and others around the State, have a critical role to play in the delivery of safe accident and emergency services? The Nenagh hospital was targeted by the Hanly report and the Hanly implementation group but this failed because his colleagues exercised themselves and it did not happen. Were it to have happened and if they had exercised themselves as well in the case of Monaghan General Hospital, then I warrant it would not have a closed accident and emergency unit today. As well as the 3,000 acute hospital beds that need to be provided and in the situation of a national emergency having been declared, will the Taoiseach now look seriously at ensuring the future not only of all the existing accident and emergency units but also those that have been reduced or closed and put them back up and running on an active footing, giving the service they have given so well in the past and taking the pressure off other hospital sites within the overall configuration of the 37 hospitals across this jurisdiction? That is the commitment we in County Monaghan need to hear from him and it is the commitment people in other parts of the country need to hear from him because it is only by taking measures such as those, rather than tinkering at the edges, that he will ensure we will make a real difference and that people will not have to languish on trolleys for excessive periods of time, not only hours, but days, in many cases. This is the Taoiseach's responsibility and I encourage him to take responsibility and to be accountable for it. There should be no more passing of responsibility to another political party or indeed to the HSE and Professor Brendan Drumm. Accountability ends with the Taoiseach as the overall steward of this Government.

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