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

According to the HSE, the number of patients on trolleys in our accident and emergency departments, and adjoining our emergency departments, was 192 this morning. That is 32% fewer than this day last year and 32% fewer than the year before. The good weather may be a factor but it is significantly lower than the last two years. As always, there is enormous variation from hospital to hospital. There are no patients on trolleys at all in Beaumont Hospital or Portiuncula University Hospital in Mayo but there were 23 on trolleys in Tallaght hospital. This demonstrates that it is about more than simple bed capacity - it is also about how resources are used as well as having them.

To answer Deputy McDonald's question regarding when will we see action, 200 additional beds have already been opened this year. A couple of years ago, as Minister for Health, I reversed the Fianna Fáil policy, made during the boom, to reduce the number of hospital beds and we have been increasing the number of hospital beds ever since. These are as follows: there are 22 in St. Vincent's Hospital; 29 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda; 17 in University Hospital Limerick; 28 in University Hospital Galway; 18 in University Hospital Waterford; 20 in Beaumont Hospital; 23 in St. James's Hospital; 24 in the Mater Hospital; 11 in Naas General Hospital; two in Cork University Hospital; and 14 in St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny. Those are the ones already opened this year. Still to come are the beds in South Tipperary General Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and Roscommon General Hospital medical assessment unit.

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