David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start, if I may, by offering my condolences to the family of Tom Burke, his wife and his children. He was an ever-present character, in the best possible sense, around Leinster House and he will be missed not only by his family but also by people in Leinster House.

This morning, there were 451 people on trolleys in hospital corridors and squeezed into free space. Limerick, Galway and Cork are still the worst hit hospitals, as they have been for years, with no change. Waiting lists are spiralling out of control, with more than 900,000 people on acute lists and 200,000 people more on diagnostic lists. This includes more than 100,000 children. The mind boggles when you reflect on that number of people who are on waiting lists and the length of time they have been waiting. We are back to high trolley counts, with waiting lists out of control, and the Government, it seems, has no plan to deal with them.

There are real human consequences of this crisis. Over the summer, I conducted a survey on the impact of long waiting times on patients. The results were stark. Long waiting times have severe consequences for stress and anxiety, with a major negative impact on people's quality of life. The survey found that 75% of people's conditions have got worse because of their wait. This is particularly severe for those waiting more than a year. It is clear that care delayed is care denied and that long wait times fail patients. There are severe consequences for mental health, with more than 70% of respondents reporting that their mental health has been severely or considerably affected.

We need to see a waiting list plan from the Government. It cannot be more window dressing, committees or talk. It has to be about action, capacity and resources. The Tánaiste knows we need more beds, staff and capacity in diagnostic and surgical theatre space. I know this from my experience in Waterford and I am sure he knows it from his experience as a previous Minister for Health. We also need modern IT systems.

One area severely affected by capacity has been maternity services. We need to see real investment in maternity services to ensure women in this country have the highest quality of care. The Tánaiste may have noticed the protest yesterday outside Leinster House, where pregnant women and their families, some with young babies, had no choice but to travel to Dublin for a protest to end maternity restrictions. Partners have been locked out of appointments and labour because of a lack of space and outdated buildings and, of course, because of infection control measures as well. Yesterday many Government backbenchers stood in solidarity with and gave commitments to the women affected and expectant mothers. I commend Linda Kelly and the #BetterMaternityCare campaign, who organised the protest, and the others who spoke or travelled. We have all heard the tragic and horrific stories from women abandoned in the most heartbreaking circumstances. These maternity restrictions need to be lifted now and the Tánaiste and his Government need to act on this. All parties and none that stood in solidarity now have to make sure there is action.

What is the Government's plan to tackle waiting lists? What is its plan to inject capacity into our healthcare system? I heard in Cork on Monday, when I met the CEO of Cork University Hospital, that we are facing into an horrendous winter in acute hospitals of more overcrowding, more people on trolleys and waiting times getting longer. What is the Government's plan to ensure that this does not happen? What specific injections of capacity and resources will be put into our healthcare system? Also, what will the Government do to end maternity restrictions?

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