Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

We are still not getting clarification from the Minister, even though others and I have been asking for a long time about the fate of accident and emergency services in places such as Loughlinstown, Bantry, Mallow, Navan, Dundalk, Ennis, Portlaoise and Nenagh and whether they will be downgraded, as mooted, a move I would consider to be utterly unacceptable. Can we have clarity as to when these decisions will be made and we will be informed?

The Minister spoke about the reduction in the number of patients waiting on trolleys and the new target that they would only be waiting six hours either to be admitted or discharged. Are these claims of success belied by the fact that in the first four months of the year 26,000 patients had to wait on trolleys? The reason there has been a reduction in the number is that the Minister is packing trolleys and beds into wards and essentially causing overcapacity. The real problem is that he is refusing to reopen the 2,000 beds which have been closed in the system and provide the necessary staff. He seems to be considering closing accident and emergency services in smaller hospitals. However, this does not add up. He cannot seriously suggest he is going to improve the position when the bottom line is that 2,000 beds have been closed, there are not enough staff and he is planning to close or downgrade accident and emergency services in a number of hospitals.

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