Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I understand this is a difficult situation for the Government. Nobody expects it to be able to deal with the issue 100%. We talk about capacity ad nauseumin this Chamber but there is a difference of 260 between the number of ICU beds there should be and the number there are. There are 112 to 117 people in ICU beds with Covid at the moment. The lack of capacity is a bigger threat to ICU capacity than those patients. There is a difference of 8,000 between the number of beds there should be in the hospital sector and the number there are. That is 16 times the number of people with Covid in hospital beds. The lack of capacity arising from Government's lack of investment in hospital beds is 16 times worse a threat to hospital bed capacity than Covid is. We need to set out a significant plan of major investment in capacity. There are 1 million people on hospital waiting lists. Even outside of Covid, there is a necessity to build capacity. It is hard to believe that the Government is looking to close down ICU beds and accident and emergency department beds in hospitals such as my own in Navan at such a time of need. I ask the Government to say here today that there will be a radical step change in how it invests in hospital capacity to deal with Covid and other health issues.

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