Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Yes, every word of it. The reality on the ground is that the serious downgrading has resulted in hospitals like Drogeda and Cavan having serious overcrowding and serious queues. Similarly in the mid-west, the downgrading of hospitals in Ennis and Nenagh has put such enormous pressure on Limerick Regional Hospital that the staff have had to give up their pay to go on strike to insist on the safety of their patients. That is the reality, not the misstatement in the Minister's amendment.

The Minister also said he wants us to note that the number of inpatient beds is no longer the best indicator of capacity to meet patients' needs. Last year the Minister was singing a different tune and saying quite clearly that the thousands of beds that had been taken out of the system over many years were directly responsible for the disaster in accident and emergency departments. Any doctor or nurse, any day of the week, will say that is the case. The reason they are there in such large numbers oftentimes, is that the beds are not in place for them to be moved into. The Minister is flying in the face of reality.

The Minister's amendment further notes that the majority of patients treated in hospitals are now day cases or out patients. What does the Minister do with day cases and out patients? In Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, the surgical day ward has closed 24 beds this week and next week, and the week after it will have only eight beds, down from 24. Instead of 40 cases being treated every day only ten to 13 cases will be treated. We are being treated with contempt by the Government in its amendment to our motion.

That two Ministers are sitting here prepared to stand over what is unreality is incredible. The reality is that the Labour and Fine Gael parties carry on where Fianna Fáil left off and they have no respect for the truth and no respect for the staff on the ground. The Defend Blanchardstown Hospital Campaign, which has been launched by staff and community, will challenge the Minister in the period ahead on all these issues, telling the truth about the situation and demanding a reversal of these cuts while next week €700 million will be sent to one group of unsecured bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank. It is incredible but it is a political choice. It is an economic choice that the Government is making and all our people are suffering.

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