Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have not accepted all pay rises in the past four years, or the last three years. That is a fact. I have proof on my phone and I will show it to the Taoiseach after the session if he wants to see it.

The issue I want to raise concerns increasing our ICU capacity, which is the lowest in the European Union. Within the programme for Government, on page 47, there is a commitment to increase it. We need to do so within the public system. There was a temporary increase owing to bringing private hospital capacity into the public system. We supported that at the time as an emergency measure but we have only six intensive care beds per 100,000 of the population. That is half the European average. Tullamore hospital, for example, has four permanent intensive care beds while Portlaoise has only two. The catchment area of those hospitals is 200,000. This is a dangerous set of circumstances, particularly as we move into the winter period. There was an increase in March and April. How much of this has been retained? What are we doing to increase capacity permanently in order to have a sufficient number of beds in the public system? I ask this question sincerely because this is life and death stuff.

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