Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Does the Taoiseach believe that, given the emergency in our health services, this number of meetings - one, if I understand properly - is sufficient? The €500 million in additional funding, which is welcome, will not deal with anything other than just keeping the system upright. It will not address the core issues of funding for new services or improvements in existing ones, the availability of new drug treatments, staff recruitment, etc. According to the delayed report from the HSE in respect of January and February, 2,700 patients aged over 75 years spent more than 24 hours on trolleys in emergency departments. In my constituency, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital still scores among the top three hospitals with the longest trolley waiting times. Some 9,381 patients were on trolleys, an increase on last year and double the March 2008 figure.

I do not know whether Cabinet sub-committees deal with the next issue I will raise, but how could they if they are not meeting? The Taoiseach regularly denies in the House that there is a moratorium on recruitment. However, in a letter from the HSE to Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, Deputy O'Reilly, the author wrote that a temporary recruitment pause was in place. That is a moratorium. We can play with fancy words and games of Scrabble with all of this, but in the meantime the patients suffer.

Another major issue is one that has been in the news recently, that of the availability of immune therapy treatments to cancer patients. Recently, I told the Taoiseach about a constituent of mine who had been on a clinical trial since 2013. She is now in remission, so her story is a very good one, but others are not receiving these treatments. Negotiations are under way, but has the Minister placed a timeframe on them? If the drug companies do not respond in a satisfactory way, will the Government use the 2013 legislation to set the price of drugs unilaterally?

I will ask my final question, since we are trying to work in a new mode. Will the Taoiseach clarify when the Minister for Health is expected to provide more details on finalising his proposals on the necessary expansion in bed capacity in services for the forthcoming autumn and winter periods?

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