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

-----in Clonmel and Limerick. These will provide additional capacity for those hospitals. We know from experience, however, that additional beds alone do not make much of a difference. Other actions are also required: better use of smaller hospitals such as that in Nenagh, for example, as Deputy Cahill mentioned; greater efficiency in how beds are used in order that patients do not wait days for investigations or to see specialists or weeks or months to be discharged to long-term care or home help; and more investment in primary care and community care in order that people do not end up in hospital in the first instance. This is one of the reasons we signed off on a 40% increase in funding for general practice, as agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, only two weeks ago.

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