Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is inappropriate to say our health services are dysfunctional and it is disrespectful to the people who work in health services. There is an issue regarding appropriate funding for health services and that is what we should discuss. The Opposition should be talking about solutions. We should bear in mind that 2,000 beds have been taken from the health services in the past number of years but because of the professionalism and dedication of the vast majority of people working in health, we have not seen "crisis" or "dysfunctionality". Those buzzwords used by the Opposition are completely inappropriate. Bed stays for acute admissions have been reduced, along with elective admission bed times. A large amount of work has been transferred from inpatient to day care within our acute hospitals and all of that has contributed to major efficiencies that can now be seen in our health services compared with a number of years ago. We still need more consultants, nurses, GPs, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists. We must also invest in ambulances, accident and emergency departments, community hospitals, mental health teams and home care packages. We need more medical cards and we should invest in primary care and the infrastructure of health services in general.

In the course of this debate there has been nothing from the Opposition that would even remotely approach a solution or something useful that the Minister of State would actually go to the trouble of noting while listening to the usual rants. I heard interruptions coming from Fianna Fáil today but they were not as bad last night, so maybe the Members were not here. They forgot to include an apology to the Irish people for being contributors to the vast majority of the problems in our health service right now.

See this speech in context