Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

Is the Minister saying that with a further €1.5 billion in cuts we will deliver a much-needed service, despite more people needing access to hospitals and some 3,000 health care workers being taken out of the system? He has mentioned the reduction in the trolley count, but we have heard from those on the ground that patients are being taken from accident and emergency departments to wards to pretend that there is not the same volume in traffic. This has been reported as true by workers on the front line. We can play with the figures which can always be played with, but those on the front line tell us about patients waiting in emergency departments, for access to hospitals, community care services and occupational therapists to help them to return to their homes. The only way they can receive that care is by going to private occupational therapists, in the process putting more pressure on ordinary working people. The Minister can play with the figures, but the reality is not as he states it.

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