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

The facts are that when Fianna Fáil was in government with the Green Party, it took a decision to reduce the number of hospital beds in the health care system. It did not do so because of austerity. It did it during the boom because it decided that there would be a shift towards day care and primary care services. As a result, it started to decrease the number of beds in acute hospitals. We reversed that decision in 2014-15 and have been adding beds ever since. I have listed for Deputy Micheál Martin exactly where the 240 extra beds opened this year are located. There are 79 more on the way that will be delivered at the end of the year and the early part of next year. We are getting it done and delivering. We are putting new beds in place and reversing the Fianna Fáil policy which was to reduce the number of hospital beds in the acute hospital system.

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