Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do not have any plan to close any emergency department in the State, not least because to do so properly, one would need to make sure patients would be adequately provided for in the next centre, the new hospital or the adjoining hospital and that they would have the capacity to deal with the additional workload. We saw the difficulties faced by St. Vincent's University Hospital when St. Columcille's Hospital had its emergency department closed. We also saw the difficulties in Limerick arising from the closures in Ennis and Nenagh. It is not that it was the wrong thing to do. Clinically, it was the right thing to do. However, one needs to make sure the new central hospitals have adequate capacity to deal with the additional patient loads and evidently they do not. That is something we need to take into account.

The bed capacity review indicates that, with reform, we will need 2,500 additional inpatient beds by 2031. As I have no reason to dispute that figure, I am happy to accept the recommendation made in the report. It is not the provision of 2,500 additional inpatient beds yesterday or tomorrow but between now and 2031, which works out at about 200 or 250 a year. We would like to front-load that number, but one cannot built hospital wings and new hospitals all that quickly. As I mentioned, we will have about 190 additional beds in hospitals this year and we are working to see how quickly we can front-load that number, if possible. It is being worked on as part of the capital plan.

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