John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

I am sharing with Deputies Finian McGrath and Seamus Healy.

Many of us are having great difficulty coming to terms with how the HSE expects hospitals to meet the ambitious targets for emergency departments and elective surgery set out in the national service plan while battling with an average budget drop of approximately 4.4%. This is not possible.

In my constituency of Waterford, for example, waiting lists for specialist treatment and surgery are about to get longer. No amount of spin can gloss over the cold, hard reality of budget reductions coupled with the Government moratorium on staff recruitment and the expected increase in the numbers of staff retiring early due to the change in pension entitlements. To put it candidly, with significant number of people leaving the service and the increasing numbers of people using the service, how can we possibly say we will have a service that is worthwhile? That is not possible. All one needs to do to realise this is to speak to nurses, doctors and front line service providers. I am not saying the Minister does not do this - obviously he does. We in opposition speak to these people every day of the week and they tell us what is happening with the service. They tell us about the waiting lists, about how people are treated, about the extra hard work they have to do and about the stress they are under. There is no question but that this is happening in hospitals all over Ireland.

Waterford Regional Hospital serves 500,000 people across the south east, but it faces cuts up to €14 million, the departure of up to 70 nurses by next month and the closure of three of its eight operating theatres, a surgical ward and a number of inpatient and outpatient beds. The shortage of nurses has already a caused a reduction in beds and the closure of an entire ward, with 25 beds taken out of commission. On a personal level, last week a 92 year old friend of mine was left waiting in a chair for hours before he could get a bed. There was not even a trolley for him. How can this happen? I do not question the Minister's integrity. I listened to him when he was in opposition and liked what he said then. I understand it is a difficult situation due to the budgetary cuts, but when a 92 year old man is left stressed and sitting in a wheelchair in 2012, we must ask what is happening in this country. How come we allow this to happen?

It is for this reason that I and other Deputies cannot support what the Minister has put before us. We know that over the next number of months and years significant numbers of people will suffer. We have no option but to talk to the Minister and the Government. I do not like to use the word "blame". I have said on a number of occasions that despite the difficulty I have with the Government, it must be given time to make changes. I liked what I heard from the Minister when he was an Opposition Deputy, but now he is not listening to people on the ground. He could not possibly be listening to nurses, doctors and those in accident and emergency wards. If he was listening, he would know that things have become extraordinarily more difficult over the past number of months. They will continue to become more difficult following the cuts in service.

Putting the matter simply, if more people need and come in to use the health services while we cut down on numbers and do not replace them - we have a moratorium on recruitment - how can there be any improvement in the service? It is not possible to improve the service in that situation.

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