Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I hope next year and the year after the Minister will be able to say there are no patients waiting on trolleys. The situation is very serious. Let us get down to the facts. This problem is also the fault of Fianna Fáil. Some 1,600 beds have been taken out of the Irish health service over the past nine years. Of course that would result in a crisis.

Worse than that is the morale of the accident and emergency staff, who are the best trained and motivated staff in the European Union. They are well qualified, but are demoralised by cuts in the health service and seeing people who could be their brothers and sisters on trolleys.

The Minister has the power to solve this issue. It is not rocket science. There is a solution to every problem. The solution to this problem is to provide more beds. The Minister should stake his claim and say there will be no trolleys on corridors in the next 18 months. If he can do that, he will go down in history.

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