Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

The 109,000 people of Cavan and Monaghan have had 10,000 medical cards removed, although some have since been replaced. In the city and county of Cork, which have a population of 500,000, only 8,000 cards were removed. There must be a major problem with funding and a major discrepancy.

To return to the need for speedy and proper subvention, Cavan General Hospital constantly has 20 to 30 patients on trolleys. There is no doubt this mostly results because people do not vacate beds quickly because there is no alternative accommodation for them, either at home or in nursing homes. The speedy and increased availability of subvention places would obviously relieve this problem and would be more cost effective for the HSE than keeping beds filled with patients who could be elsewhere. It is a scandal that 25 beds of the psychiatric wing in Cavan General Hospital are empty constantly when those beds could be put to other use. I accept that nobody would want a parent or other relative in a psychiatric ward but the ward could be changed and renamed to rectify that situation. There are also long-term beds at Lisdaran which could be changed to short-term use to ease the situation and relieve delays.

I welcome that this money will be paid and I hope this happens quickly. However, comments from the Government side suggest that the Government believes a significant amount of that money will not be claimed or requested. I want an assurance that money which is donated will be put into a proper public fund and utilised for the elderly, not for political or other skullduggery.

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