James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Minister stated the average number of people waiting admission was one hundred and something. I do not know where she gets her figures. The INO figures indicate that some 340 people are on trolleys today while on 27 March some 305 people were on trolleys. On 24 March, some 387 people were on trolleys while the figure on 20 March was 304 people. The figure does not dip below 300. Therefore, five years after the Minister's ten-point plan, we still have a mess with regard to patients on trolleys. It does not matter how one dresses up the figures or how we dispute them in the House because the reality, irrespective of whether we like, is that people are lying on trolleys in accident and emergency units for two and three days at a time. No amount of gloss can change that.

We hear today of plans to address this issue rather than of actual results. In 2006, the authorities in Northern Ireland set up a system to deal with the matter. In March 2008, one year ago, 92% of patients were seen within four hours of arrival. We are still counting waiting times and the number of people on trolleys from the time a decision to admit is made rather than from the time of arrival at the hospital. The two measures are entirely different.

Why, after five years, does the crisis continue? Why are the numbers still so high? Even using the Minister's own numbers, one cannot say there has been any real decrease since the time she said the problem should be treated as a national emergency. Where has all the money gone? Why have we not done what we said we should do, that is, address the bed capacity issue with regard to beds occupied by those whose acute phase of treatment is over and who have nowhere to go in the community?

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