Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have serious concerns about the underfunding of our health service. We were told today that it is to the tune of €1.3 billion. We must also factor in the additional capital funding needed for the much-promised 1,500 acute additional hospital beds and the growing cost of the national children's hospital ,both of which have not been allocated extra funding in the budget. Such a significant underfunding of our health services will impact on the delivery of much-needed services in Laois and Offaly. It will impede the required expansion in the number of step-down beds for patients being discharged from acute hospitals such as Portlaoise. It will also restrict the HSE's ability to advance the provision of primary care centres and local health centres in towns like Portarlington, Rathdowney and Mountrath, as well as Portlaoise, which is a town heading towards having a population of 30,000 people and still does not have a primary care centre.

The midlands will struggle and will not get the required resources to fund already underfunded and underperforming dental services for schoolchildren and the now-collapsed dental treatment scheme for adults. Simply throwing money at the HSE is not what is being proposed here. This is not the solution in itself. Funding, however, is necessary. This must, however, be accompanied by radical reform. We are calling for a supplementary budget for 2023 just to maintain existing services and reverse the recruitment freeze on the essential front-line posts, and not those posts with people who are standing about, required to keep the services going. We want a time-bound plan to be put in place to end the HSE's reliance on expensive outsourcing and private healthcare. This includes ending our over-reliance on outsourcing, agency staff, management consultancy and huge overtime costs.

I saw the Minister shaking his head earlier, but I heard a Deputy from his party speaking eloquently on local radio this morning about these issues and saying exactly what I have just said. We need to support our front-line workers, increase staff numbers and fill the gaps in essential services.

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