Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is funding this year to hire a further 8,000 full-time permanent staff in 2022. That is a significant resource. We need to accelerate the HR side of this in terms of recruitment, but the funding is there to recruit additional staff. That applies across the country, including in Tralee. Additional funding has been allocated to the national clinical programmes. In terms of staffing, skill mix and so on, funding has been provided in the budget. Approximately 5 million homecare hours have been provided to alleviate the pressures on hospitals and to facilitate flow through hospitals and so forth. An additional 12,150 community short-term, rehab and intermediate care beds were provided. Funding was provided for that in 2021. There has been a very significant expansion.

I will engage with the HSE on the specifics of some of the issues raised by the Deputy. The Minister has provided €350 million in the budget to deal with waiting lists and waiting times and to get the numbers waiting undue lengths of time on trolleys down. I sympathise with the person - I do not know if the Deputy knew the person - who passed in very unacceptable circumstances. As I said, the resources are there to deal with this issue. I will engage with the HSE in terms of the specific issues that the consultants have identified and communicated to all of the public representatives in the Kerry region, as articulated today by the Deputy.

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