Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will focus on the health aspects of the plan but it would be remiss of me not to mention metro north, or metro link as it is now known. I went to look for my old election posters when I heard the announcement because it is a sure sign that an election is coming; it is definitely not a sure sign that metro north, metro link or anything like it, will be coming. The people of north county Dublin have been fooled too many times before, and we will not believe it until we see it. Putting it in a glossy brochure or advertising it in the cinema is not the same thing as delivering it. We will wait and see.

The capital projects relating to health under Project Ireland 2040 are, primarily, repackaged and relaunched projects, not unlike metro north, and many of them are already under way. Two of the headline announcements were the national children's hospital and the National Maternity Hospital, despite these being announced years ago. A sample of some of the other the previously announced projects include the national cancer strategy capital developments. These projects include: the national programme for radiation oncology at Cork, Galway and Dublin, which Senator James Reilly, when he was Minister for Health, launched; the national forensic mental health service hospital at Portrane, which was announced by former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny; and the National Rehabilitation Hospital redevelopment in Dún Laoghaire, which is already under way and which obtained planning permission long ago as 2015. Even when the latter is built, it will not add any extra capacity.

Of those new projects announced, many are long overdue. For example, a ward block was announced for University Hospital Limerick even though this was needed years ago. The hospital consistently deals with approximately 40 to 50 patients on trolleys each day. Last year, there were 8,869 patients left on trolleys in Limerick alone. Similarly, we welcome the announcement of a ward block for Waterford, particularly as there were 5,525 patients left on trolleys in University Hospital Waterford in 2017. A new endoscopy suite was announced for Naas General Hospital and, while this is welcome, I hope it fares better than the surgery theatre there which has not been used once in 15 years because there are not enough staff to run it. The latter is despite the fact that nearly 7,000 people are on waiting lists at the hospital.

The announcement of a new hospital for Cork is good news. Cork needs a new hospital. There were nearly 10,000 patients left on trolleys between the Cork University Hospital, CUH, and Mercy University Hospital in Cork city last year. A new hospital is long overdue. We hope that a new hospital does not mean scaling down services at CUH or the Mercy.

I welcome the commitments to genuinely increase capacity. However, capacity is a twofold issue and it means nothing without the recruitment and retention of staff. The plan is heralded as preparing Ireland for the future; all the while, the health announcements in it will barely see us meet current demand and unmet need.

See this speech in context