Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

There may have been increases in recent months but staff have been gutted from the health service for six years. There has been a 10% reduction in that time.

There is a relationship between the trolley and bed crisis and the embargo and downsizing in general of our health service in recent years or since 2009. It got worse in 2014 under the watch of this Government. Some 77,091 people had to wait on a trolley in our health services in 2014, while in 2007 the number was 50,000. There has been a major increase of almost 50%.

I have it on good authority from managers of Connolly Memorial Hospital, which is in the Minister's constituency, that the embargo had played a direct role in making that hospital one of those with the highest numbers of patients on trolleys. The hospital could not recruit agency staff over Christmas because they did not want to work over Christmas. Moreover, the Minister has banned hospitals from recruiting staff directly.

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