Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am struck by the almost laissez-faireapproach of the Taoiseach and Government in the area of health. Did I hear correctly we were given a date for the last meeting but no date for the next? The number of people on hospital waiting lists in August increased for the month by 3,500 so we now have almost half a million people awaiting outpatient treatment. The Minister for Health tried to bury this bad news by releasing it late on a Friday evening. Trolley numbers are also up. August saw 7,781 admitted patients on trolleys. That is an increase of 27% on 2016. I do not know about anybody else but that fills me with fear and trepidation as we head through the autumn and into the winter time. The reality is the level of overcrowding now in our emergency departments remains at a record high. In the first eight months of 2017, 65,455 people admitted for care were on trolleys. That is up 7%. It is absolutely shocking. I have no sense of any plan emerging to deal with it. Yesterday there were 494 people on trolleys. In Cork, there were 50 patients in the ED and 51 in Limerick. It is very clear these people are being failed. What will the Taoiseach's commitment be in respect of the budget? I have heard him time and again offsetting his responsibilities to the HSE. We are all aware of the statutory function of the HSE but the Taoiseach is in charge. What plans does he have in the budget to recognise these crises?

Three weeks ago, my colleague, an Teachta Louise O'Reilly, published a proposal to establish Comhliosta, an integrated hospital waiting list management system, to try to tackle the waiting lists more efficiently and reduce waiting times. This would create a new model to maximise the capacity of the public hospital system. I recommend that initiative to Government.

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