Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government could raise the cap. The Estimates have been published and will appear before the health committee in the coming weeks. I hope that the Minister will make a case to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for lifting the cap.

Fewer public beds are available in what are called community hospitals. It would be remiss of me to speak on this issue without mentioning the farcical situation of Abbeyleix hospital and St. Brigid's Hospital in Shaen, Portlaoise, both of which are community hospitals. Abbeyleix hospital could have up to 50 patients, yet the Government, including the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Reilly, announced its closure. It is still not closed, but no one is being admitted to it other than on a respite basis. An attempt has been made to close the hospital but, for a modest amount of money, it could be brought up to the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA's standards. The choice has been made to outsource care of the elderly. The same is the case in St. Brigid's Hospital. For the umpteenth time in the Chamber, I ask the Minister to make a decision and announce once and for all that he will upgrade both hospitals. It would be a scandalous waste of resources not to utilise their facilities.

Let us not move away from my question on why we are in this situation. It is because of Government budgetary choices. It is ironic that this debate is occurring at the beginning of January when the Government made its choices in the middle of October. The Government could have provided more money for hospital beds or crowded accident and emergency departments, but instead chose to give tax cuts to the wealthy, those on the top tax rate. The Government could have decided to provide more money for outpatient appointments, putting people on consultants' waiting lists, reducing elective surgery waiting times or lifting the cap on the fair deal scheme, but instead chose to look after the most well-off in society by giving a tax cut of 1% to those earning more than €70,000. People earning that much benefitted more from the recent budget than anyone else. They are receiving their tax cuts in their pay packets today. Meanwhile, hundreds of people are lying on accident and emergency trolleys.

See this speech in context