Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Anybody can point to a year or two and claim increases in those years. Twenty years ago, there were 22,000 hospital beds in this State; today, there are only 14,000. The Minister should do the maths. Ten years ago, it was stated that there was need for 500 ICU beds in this State; today, there are only 300. We have one of the lowest rates of the OECD. The Minister cannot hide and talk around that issue.

One of the reasons the Government has put forward for the closure of the emergency department in Navan hospital is the threat of an adverse incident. I contacted the national incident management system. Its staff showed that in five years there has been an increase from 79,000 to 105,000 in adverse incidents in the hospital system. There has been a 37% increase. I asked which hospitals were suffering most and was told they could not answer that question because they did not want to create a league table of hospitals, but they did tell me which hospital groups are suffering most from adverse incidents. The RCSI Hospital Group had a 47% increase in adverse incidents in that timescale. The Government is looking to close a hospital and an emergency department in the Ireland East Hospital Group and to push it towards the RCSI group. How is that safe?

See this speech in context