Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the effort of people working on the front line in the health service. It has been a very difficult number of years for them. We have had almost a lost decade in terms of investment in the health service when we would have been building capacity in key areas and that has not been possible. However, despite that and despite a near 10% reduction in the number of people working in the health service, the statistics reveal a 20% increase in the number of patients treated in accident and emergency departments. There was a similar increase in the number of procedures carried out, indicating that our hospitals and care services are delivering.

However, we need to continue to invest and there are gaps, as the Minister, Deputy Harris, has made clear. This year for the first time ever, he will bring the HSE's budget in on target. He will do that next year. As the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, said in his budget speech, there will be very close scrutiny of the way in which health spending is being rolled out, with a precise eye to the sorts of issues the Deputy asked about: waiting times and the experiences of patients at the front line.

Two specific options are being explored in respect the Clonmel hospital - a modular-build extension, fitting out space in an area currently under construction; and in parallel the HSE will examine the potential for the development of a step-down facility in Clonmel. It is recognised that there has been an 8.6% increase in the number of people who have come to the accident and emergency department in this hospital in the past 12 months, which means there is increasing pressure on those services from growing patient need. The winter initiative specifically targets that hospital as part of the initiatives being taken to try to relieve that pressure.

We will not solve a lost decade of investment in one or two years. This will take a systematic programme of reform and delivery. From the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and his predecessor, Deputy Varadkar, we have had a clear strategy to implement change within the health service and deliver better at the front line as well as a better working experience for those in it.

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