Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I send all of our best wishes to our colleague, the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, and wish him a full and speedy recovery.

The failure of the Government to plan for the Covid surge has created substantial pressure. GP services are overwhelmed, and schools are struggling. In large swathes of the country, people cannot get a PCR test while the Government still dithers on antigen testing. In our hospitals, especially ICUs, we see the sharpest impact. The capacity crisis in ICUs did not happen overnight. A HSE-commissioned expert report published in September 2009 recommended that the number of intensive care unit beds be increased from 289 to 579. Successive Governments have known about this problem for more than a decade and have done nothing. They cut a further 40 beds out of the system between the publication of that report in 2009 and the onset of Covid.

This lack of foresight has continued throughout the pandemic. The vaccination programme and lockdowns bought precious time to prepare hospital capacity for surges but the Government has wasted these opportunities. Even in the recent budget, it tinkered around the edges with ICU capacity. We do not have the necessary number of personnel to staff our ICUs safely, even in normal times. Experts tell us that we need between 150 and 200 additional ICU beds and more specialist staff for hospitals to cope. The failure to properly resource our hospitals has devastating consequences and serious knock-on effects for our society. Protecting our health service from collapse is a key reason for the prolonged use of restrictions.

Lack of capacity also has dangerous consequences for those requiring vital care and life-saving procedures. Earlier this month, a transplant operation was cancelled in Dublin's Mater hospital because no ICU bed was available. I cannot imagine how distressing this was for the patient, the patient's family and for the doctors who had to make this call. There should have been an ICU bed for this patient and there would have been if the Government had planned properly. We are already playing catch-up on missed non-Covid care. We are facing a tsunami of missed care in the coming months. Not having the additional ICU capacity is putting patients at risk. The Government continues to turn up a day late and a dollar short. We are two years into the pandemic and 12 years into the ICU capacity crisis and the Government has not even come close to doing enough for ICU capacity. As we watch our hospitals fill up again and restrictions are reimposed, people are asking what the Government is waiting for.

Tá an ganntanas leapacha sna hionaid dianchúraim, ICU, ag cur brú ar na hospidéil agus ag cur na n-othar i mbaol. Caithfidh an Rialtas rud éigin a dhéanamh go práinneach chun acmhainní na n-ionad dianchúraim a mhéadú go dtí an leibhéal riachtanach. What is the Government's plan for ICUs to meet this surge? What is the status of our surge capacity and when will it be deployed? Has the Taoiseach instructed the Minister for Health to begin properly and permanently resourcing our ICUs to the required levels in order that we do not end up here again?

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