James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

In that case, in my final comments on co-location I will focus on some of the other issues which arise due to the lack of investment in our hospitals. The Minister stated that those who need isolation rooms should have them but the reality is there are too few of them, particularly at Beaumont Hospital, which cannot deal with all the MRSA patients who should be in such rooms. That hospital certainly does not have the ability to isolate patients with cystic fibrosis, who have a ten-year shorter life expectancy in this country than patients in the United Kingdom because of that very fact. Other issues also have an influence, such as screening from birth, but the inability to isolate patients is a major issue.

Patients are afraid to go into hospitals because of the risk of infection and they stay at home longer than they should as a consequence. They are caught in a catch-22, damned if they do and damned if they do not. It is the State's responsibility to look after them. It is the State's and the Minister's failure in recent years, a time of unprecedented plenty, to put in place facilities for such people.

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