Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Tuesday, the Taoiseach disgracefully tried to shift the blame for his and the Government's failure to tackle the perpetual trolley crisis in hospitals by attacking our hard-working and diligent nurses and doctors. Not content with insulting tens of thousands of front-line workers once, yesterday, the Taoiseach doubled down on his remarks. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, who should know better, has now shamefully weighed in behind him. It is an absolute disgrace. Nurses' and doctors' leave is not the cause of the problem in our health service. The trolley crisis and overcrowding is due to capacity issues and the continuing and worsening recruitment and retention crisis. It is up to the Government, and the Government alone, to address these escalating issues, not ordinary nurses or doctors who serve the public day in, day out. It is the Tánaiste's and the Government's problem. After almost eight years in government, it has failed to address the trolley crisis.

When he was Minister for Health, the Taoiseach missed targets, saw record numbers of patients on trolleys, oversaw botched recruitment schemes, saw the numbers on waiting lists soar, and stumbled from one disaster to another. For him to now attack front-line public health service workers for his and the Tánaiste's failure is gutter politics. Blaming nurses and doctors will not solve a single issue in the health service, and it most certainly will not help the recruitment and retention crisis we face.

Some weeks ago, the Taoiseach launched another attack on health workers saying that despite an increase in staff, there had been no corresponding increase in productivity in the health service. That is a blatant lie. Along with his attack on them this week, it is a blatant falsehood. The Department of Health has stated on the record that accident and emergency department attendances are up; surgical day case work is up in excess of 70% over ten years; outpatient assessments have reached 3.3 million annually; and annual inpatient discharges are up by 7% over ten years. All that work is done by hard-working nurses and doctors who the Minister and the Taoiseach decided to attack.

What is needed to tackle overcrowding is a strategic plan. Do we have one? Of course we do not because the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health would rather attack nurses than put their shoulders to the wheel and tackle the root causes of this problem. That is the easy way out; it is the cop-out.

To contrast that with what is happening across the water with the NHS, it published its winter plan in September. When will we see the plan to tackle overcrowding, which will increase capacity in the health service, one that will address the recruitment and retention crisis and deliver proper step-down facilities and home care support for our vulnerable? That is what is needed, not attacks on front-line workers or stupid and insulting remarks. I ask the Tánaiste to take this opportunity to apologise to the nurses and the doctors for the Taoiseach's hurtful and ill-informed comments that he made yesterday and the day before.

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