John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The hospital is committed to that. I am not suggesting that the Government is covering up for decisions taken. I am making the point that the hospital has committed and confirmed that it can live up to its service plan for 2009.

So far this year, Crumlin hospital has delivered more treatments to patients than for the same period last year. In the first four months of 2009 there were 3,704 treatments for children as in-patients and 5,095 as day cases - up by 234 over 2008. The allocation to Crumlin for 2009 is €139.6 million, an increase of some 39% over the last five years. This includes a reduction of 3% this year over 2008, in line with the budgetary constraints facing the entire public sector and the wider economy. A particular challenge for the hospital is that it has been operating at some 91 posts above its employment ceiling - it employed 1,641 people whole-time equivalents at the end of April compared with its ceiling of 1,550. This is contributing to the current financial difficulties.

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