Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under this Government, there are record levels of spending and investment in healthcare. Spending on healthcare will increase next year, not go down. There are also record levels of staff working in our health service. There are 20,000 more staff than there were when this Government came into office, including 6,000 extra nurses and midwives and about 2,000 extra doctors and dentists. Those are the facts. They are producing results. Waiting lists, which peaked after the pandemic, are now falling. They are down by about 20% since the peak, which is not the case in most other European countries. While we experience very serious problems in emergency department overcrowding, there are about 70 fewer patients on trolleys today than was the case this time last year. There are also big improvements in patient outcomes, particularly around cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease. We have a higher life expectancy in Ireland than almost any other European country. It is a far cry from the NHS system which the Deputy wants to see brought into Ireland, where life expectancy is lower, patient outcomes are worse, people wait longer and staff are paid a lot less.

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