Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to revert to the issue of overcrowding in hospitals across the country, in particular, the hospital closest to me, which is University Hospital Limerick, UHL, in Limerick. I wish to put it in context as well because, on 14 January 2014, then Deputy Micheál Martin raised the spectre of overcrowding in hospitals. He stated that the Minister had neglected it as a priority in government and that is why there were record numbers last week, and the Minister tried to get away with it but got caught. The then Minister for Health, now Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, responded that Deputy Micheál Martin wasted money when there were billions of euro sloshing around. He also stated that the overcrowding in hospitals went back to the Tánaiste's time as Minister for Health and that he would solve it as Minister for Health. At this stage, I suppose we are much less concerned with when it started and whose fault it is than when it will end and who will solve the problem.

The Tánaiste has repeatedly said that the Government is a victim of its own success because of the rise in life expectancy. There has been a rise in life expectancy but not a hugely dramatic one. In 2014, life expectancy was 80.56 years in Ireland. It is now 82.81 years. It is an increase, but not one that would explain overcrowding levels. In January 2014, in the middle of winter, when Deputy Micheál Martin raised this issue, there were 359 people on hospital trolleys, 34 of whom were in Limerick. Today, in the middle of summer - everybody knows it will get much worse when we enter into the winter period again - there are 390 people on trolleys across the country, 97 of whom are in UHL.

We spend a lot of money on health in Ireland. We did then and we do now. We spent €19 billion on health in 2014 in the midst of an economic crisis. The country was on its knees and the Government still found €19 billion to spend on health. We spend more than that now. We spend almost €24 billion on health. By OECD levels, we spend almost as any other country on health but it seems, from my perspective, and maybe the Tánaiste will differ with me, that our outcomes are not as good as those of other countries. Trolleys are, of course, in every hospital but the large numbers on trolleys seem to be a particular Irish problem. There is money sloshing around us, as Sinn Féin already pointed out with regard specifically to the national children's hospital. Is money being wasted? I do not know the answer to that. We have seen much wastage of money in other Government areas. Does that carry across to the HSE, because, like RTÉ, there is a new chief executive officer, CEO, in the HSE who seems intent on reforming practices and getting value for money?

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