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

One of the solutions we have proposed is that the Government should stop giving tax cuts to the wealthy and instead consider helping the most vulnerable people in our society. That it has not done so is a decision made by this Government and nobody else. In recent months we have seen senior Government Ministers celebrating the wonderful tax returns. Some of them were just short of somersaulting naked down Grafton Street. The reality is that those returns are being subsidised by the 600 people languishing on trolleys in hospitals throughout the State. That is what is happening here. As I said, this is a capacity issue, and the beds could be opened if the resources were made available. I hope the Minister of State is successful in securing those resources.

If we can open the beds, we then have an opportunity to look at other issues such as the terms and conditions of employment of nurses, which have been shattered by this Government. We subsidise nurses' education only to see hundreds of them boarding aeroplanes to Britain, the United States and Australia because the Government has completely destroyed their terms and conditions of work in this country. There is a solution to be found there. I assume the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, in his veiled reference to people needing to put their shoulders to the wheel was referring to hospital consultants rather than nurses. I certainly hope so. Why then is he inviting consultants to have the first go at the trough, thereby ensuring the well-paid are further well-paid while nurses are left with their yellow-pack terms and conditions? There is no consideration for these vital staff who are working on the front line.

I appreciate that the Government must protect jobs in the public service. I am hopeful that the quality of Minister of State's contributions in recent weeks materialises in terms of the actions required to develop a modern and effective primary care service, which would go a long way towards keeping vulnerable citizens of this State out of our accident and emergency units. In an interview on Newstalk in recent days, she referred to the capital programme for senior citizens and additional beds for elder care. That programme should be accelerated. These are the types of solution we are urging from this side of the House.

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