Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is an extraordinarily serious matter that has arisen over Christmas. It is strange that it was not properly foreseen and, if it was foreseen, that nothing was really done about it. The terrifying question, which was asked, I think, on "Morning Ireland" the other day, which has been asked ever since and to which we have not got a satisfactory answer, is whether the accident and emergency departments are safe. Eventually, I think, we got an answer, which is that they are in fact not safe in their present situation.

Given that accident and emergency departments, which are the main point of contact between the public and the hospitals, are in absolute and total chaos, there is no meaningful organisation, they are understaffed and there are inadequate resources to deal with people coming in, one wonders what is happening behind it. To me this is like pus coming out of a body. Given the problems that exist at the initial point of contact which cannot be managed, one wonders what is happening inside. It indicates to me that the entire health system in this country is pretty sick.

Nobody has been able to tackle the issue in any adequate way for at least 15 years. One wonders what is going on. Is it political control? Is it some sort of extraordinary disease that has infected the hospitals? Is it inertia? Is it a massive bureaucracy, sitting on top of some particularly fine hard-working nurses and front-line people, but in control? From time to time the revelation comes to us that this system is utterly and totally dysfunctional and we are using sticking plaster to address the system when there is a public outcry. This is what has happened here. The numbers have been reduced pretty quickly from, I think, 600 to 300, but they will increase again shortly. The outlook is not in any way perspicuous until it is fundamentally tackled.

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