Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste simply does not get it. He does not get the scale of the crisis. Professor Malone, the master of the Rotunda, summed it up well in speaking toThe Irish Timestoday when he stated, "The dignity of patients doesn’t seem to resonate with decision-makers."

The Tánaiste can give us the spin all he wants. Last year, Ministers announced the opening of 20 beds in Letterkenny University Hospital where we have on average 30 patients on trolleys every day. Ten of those beds are lying empty because there is a recruitment moratorium in place. That is the reality of it. The position is the same in Cork, Limerick and throughout the country. It is not rocket science. The Government needs to open beds that are available in the public health system. The Government needs to lift the recruitment embargo so that there are the proper staff in nursing, midwifery and consultants to staff those beds, and it needs to adequately resource home care packages. The package that the Government announced in the budget will not even clear the waiting list that have accumulated as a result of the moratorium that it introduced in home care at the beginning of the summer.

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