Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much for his comments and, of course, I am well aware of my duties to the Dáil and the need to put forward factual answers to questions the Deputy raises, which at all points I endeavour to do.

I will just deal with the different layers of the question the Deputy has put to me. First, on the obligation we have to those looking for hospital and medical care within hospitals, this is the reason in my time as Minister for Finance and before that we enabled and added 22,000 extra staff to our health service, including an extra 6,700 nurses and midwives. That is why we have now increased our hospital bed capacity by 1,000 beds. We have seen a very significant increase in funding for the health service in recent years in recognition of the needs the Deputy is describing. Our Estimates and our budgetary process also has to deal with the availability of resources and the fact the Government is dealing with a variety of different demands across many different elements of our public services. Of course, I am aware of the issues the Deputy raises.

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