Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that I know is of great concern to all Members of the House. This is precisely the reason that, in budget 2017, as the Deputy acknowledged, the Government put in place a very substantial increase in the amount of funding going into our health service. As he will be aware, it now stands at €14.6 billion. It is the highest level of funding that has been made available to the Department of Health and the HSE in our history.

It is a €900 million increase compared with where the Department and the HSE stood a year ago. All of that has been done precisely because this Government recognises the need for investment in our health service to ensure that a stable economy is capable of delivering benefits to those who need them the most, patients and those who need to avail of the emergency departments. It recognises too the huge work of the 100,000 front-line staff working for the HSE.

In respect of the particular issues the Deputy raises, we should consider what that investment is capable of delivering from a bed capacity point of view. The Deputy referred to the investment in University Hospital Galway. That is facilitating the building of a 75 bed ward. In Kilkenny and Limerick, the investment is facilitating the construction and opening of new emergency departments. In Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the same level of investment is facilitating the opening of a new extension to deliver the kind of investment and support the Deputy refers to. This is on top of the investment in Wexford General Hospital and the opening of a new accident and emergency ward in the Mater hospital which has had to deal with so much difficulty in recent years regarding the numbers presenting at the hospital particularly at busy times. The level of investment by this and the previous Government facilitates the kind of improvements I have referred to.

The Deputy referred to a bed capacity review which is taking place in the context of that improvement. Whether it should be independent is a matter for the Minister for Health but I will relay this to him. He will be aware of the Deputy’s views. I have confidence in the ability of the HSE to do that work well. In addition, the Government has put in place a fund of €40 million to respond to the kind of pressure the Deputy refers to, which peaks in winter.

We can put this investment in, but in return what we need most is that all those working in the health service, from general practitioners to nurses and those involved in running hospitals, work in an integrated way that will ensure this investment delivers the benefits the Deputy is calling for.

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