Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He was entitled to them. Needless to say, we knew that the crisis was happening. So did SIPTU and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO. They have been highlighting the situation since September. It was no great shock that this was coming down the line like a train. However, these people's views have been ignored. This is of great concern, as we did not take the opportunity in December to prevent what happened this month. It will continue happening year upon year.

The Minister took his three days off. Unluckily for him, the decisions made on 23 December did not materialise during his absence in terms of the cancellation of electives. This has caused a significant problem. When he returned, his first act was to attack the staff. It was their fault and they should have put their shoulders to the wheel to resolve the situation. I am disturbed by the trend of attacking front-line staff. For example, Deputy Twomey attacked staff for taking sick days or time off. They work in a labour-intensive environment. Staff at UHG report to me that they cannot take their statutory rest periods because of chronic understaffing and the need to be present, as Deputy Troy described, to ensure service delivery for vulnerable people. I am concerned that such staff, who are working in difficult circumstances, have not been respected or acknowledged by the contributions of Government Deputies during this debate. The Minister's contribution the minute he got off the aeroplane was particularly patronising, in that he stated that staff should put their shoulders to the wheel, as if to claim they had not already done so. Since September, the INMO and SIPTU had been highlighting the emerging crisis. Ironically, there was subsequently a range of ballots across accident and emergency units. What the Minister stated was not good management and showed poor leadership. This condescending attitude has added to the impetus for industrial action and is counterproductive to the necessary resolution.

The Minister of State will agree that we are trying to shove through the eye of a needle the consequences of significant cutbacks in primary care. There is no integrated, strategic plan for managing home helps and home care packages with a view to keeping people out of accident and emergency units. As has been described, the consequential bed crisis is multifaceted. It is a capacity issue, in that we do not have enough beds for the number of people presenting at accident and emergency units.

This is causing a significant problem, not least for the staff of these units, who genuinely care about the delivery of services and better outcomes for vulnerable people.

It has been suggested here today that the Opposition does not have any solutions to the problems in our health service.

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