Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These facts speak for themselves. Fianna Fáil had nothing to discuss at the launch of its advertising campaign yesterday but Fine Gael.

Instead of taking the opportunity of this motion to debate the virtue of the health policy that it announced a couple of weeks ago, Sinn Féin has discussed the suffering of patients and families purely for the purpose of political point scoring and making itself look good. Nor has it explained where it will get the extra €3 billion that would be needed to fund the new and improved health service that it claims it will deliver. All it has said is that the €3 billion will come from the rich. Seeing as how it believes people are rich when they earn €30,000, everyone in the country will pay for that extra €3 billion.

To claim that we do not have a plan is not true, but to say that the health service faces challenges is. It always has done and always will. One reason for this has been the increasing number of people presenting at emergency departments year on year in recent times. People are living longer and getting sicker. Coupled with this is the removal of resources and services from the system because of the economic climate of the past five years. Thankfully, however, the situation is starting to change. The increased funding over 2015 has allowed us to implement 88 steps in a programme that arose from last year's analysis by the Minister, the emergency task force and other elements of the health services. One of the key changes made in the past six to 12 months is the extra funding for the fair deal scheme. We recognised that a waiting time of more than 20 weeks for a bed in a nursing home was not acceptable. The necessary extra money was sought and acquired by the Minister and there is now a waiting period of less than three weeks to move people from acute hospital beds to where they should be and where they can get more appropriate care - that is, nursing home beds.

Of more importance is the need to reopen the beds that were closed in the 1980s and recent years. This process was started last year when the Minister opened more than 300 step-down beds around the country, which was welcome. There is a commitment to introduce a further 127 step-down beds in the first quarter of this year.

Recruiting nurses poses an issue, but one would have to be blind not to recognise that the HSE and individual hospital groups are doing everything they can to encourage nurses who are working outside the country, including those who left Ireland in recent years, to return to our health service.

We will start to see that bear fruit.

There has been a noteworthy increase in the number of people presenting in emergency departments with respiratory problems and flu-like symptoms. Some of the key initiatives to address this include the rolling out of the winter resilience plans. Those concerned are working alongside the community and primary care service providers. The initiative will work, and its purpose is to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.

The simple response to the emergency department problem is that it is up to the departments to solve it. It clearly is not; it is up to the entire service to solve the problems. The answer must involve the acute systems and the emergency departments themselves, but also general practitioners, primary care services, home care services and public health nurses. We must ensure there are organisations to keep people well at home and provide the relevant services.

We must bear in mind the increase in funding for home care packages and public health services, in addition to the provision of general practitioner access cards to children under six and those over 70. All these initiatives are working. The improvements with regard to delivery teams in our primary care services are very welcome. While there are challenges, they are absolutely being addressed. We will continue to address them.

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