Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and extra staff are being appointed, including 750 extra nurses and 300 consultants. With 1,000 beds having been taken out of the system bed capacity is an issue, which brings me back to the central point that with our economy recovering, we need to be able to keep that in focus in order that investment can take place to provide for these very facilities that people need.

I do not agree or say it is acceptable that persons of senior years should have to wait for very long periods on trolleys in hospitals. Much of the focus is on ensuring that does not happen. It was the focus of intense discussions between the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and management in hospitals in the recent past. An agreement was reached on that and I hope that management will be able to put in place the changes for the facilities within those hospitals that staff need and that staff have complained about in the sense of not being able to look after their patients to the level to which they have been trained.

Primary care is a central feature of Government policy on health and the more people who can be treated in the community and at primary care centres and not have a requirement to go hospital in the first place, the less pressure there will be on accident and emergency departments. It is a part of a three-pronged approach to provide facilities as close to people as possible within the primary care system and, within a recovering economy, to be able to invest where possible. That includes bed capacity and staff and personnel who are trained to deal with these matters. It is always a challenge, as the Deputy is well aware.

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