Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will come to the conclusion. Here are three critical issues. There is the business of patients on trolleys. We are in the height of summer with glorious weather and these are figures we normally have at the height of winter. There is a crisis. The Taoiseach talks about a recovery. Do not talk about a fair recovery. It is not a fair recovery if the Government does not implement recommendations and just dismisses a request for an inquiry into the way we treat citizens with intellectual disabilities or if we just ignore the fact that in June 2015, after four years of Government, almost 400 patients are on trolleys and other patients in hospital beds cannot be released because although they have been medically discharged, it is not safe to bring them home because of the cuts made by the Government to protections and the necessities of life. Is this is not how we should judge, not by how many meetings and how many the Taoiseach attends, and this is all important, but by results? On these three issues the Taoiseach batted away a serious question today and has not even responded to the request for an investigation into care centres for citizens with intellectual disabilities.

There is ongoing dreadfulness in hospital corridors with people on trolleys, if they are lucky enough to get trolleys. Is that not a way to judge the efficacy of these committees?

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