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

I left my crystal ball at home but I did not need it because I could have predicted that the Minister of State would blame the storm, make a nod towards the staff, the patients and the disease profile. There is a real lack of accountability and sense of responsibility for this problem. The Minister of State does not have to take my word for it. The INMO publishes the figures. After seven years of Fine Gael in government the problem is getting increasingly worse.

When Fianna Fáil was in government 469 people on trolleys was declared a national emergency. Fine Gael has picked up that ball and run with it fairly enthusiastically surpassing the Fianna Fáil figures to reach 714 which is nothing short of disgraceful. The Minister of State did not acknowledge that. The transitional care beds and the investment are all to be welcomed. The Government does not need another bed capacity review or another report from the HSE. It can see that if there are 485 people on trolleys we are short 485 beds. That is very simple mathematics.

The Minister of State cannot dress this up or hide behind statistics. The simple fact is he has managed to preside over a health service that is not an attractive place for people to work in. Nurses, doctors and allied health professionals will tell one that. They tell me that. The Minister of State must be aware of that. There is a crisis in recruitment and retention, which is leading to a crisis in capacity, and there are no answers coming from the Government. I have been to the print room and have seen people from the Minister of State's party. They are voting no confidence in his ability to sort this crisis out. They are printing leaflets to give to their constituents to advise them on how they can get treated abroad. That is a vote of no confidence. They have no confidence that this will be improved. Judging by the words just uttered by the Minister of State, I would have no confidence that he has any plan to improve this. The plan is blame the weather and in the meantime, ask the HSE to devise another plan. It beggars belief.

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