Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will say that the Government does not care because a government that did care would actually listen to the ESRI when it says we need 1,000 more beds now.

The Department of Health has a plan for those beds. The problem is that the Government, of which the Tánaiste is a part, made a decision not to fund those beds. There is no way you can slice, dice or spin it around. The Government made a conscious decision not to fund the additional beds. Then the Tánaiste says nobody should be on a trolley for 100 hours. The reality is that in many of these hospitals the bed capacity is simply not there and the Government is making conscious decisions not to allow the Department which has gone out to tender to actually ensure that these beds are in our hospitals in the future. You cannot have it both ways because this rests on the Tánaiste's shoulders. The Government has missed its targets on trolleys and waiting lists and it is blocking the funding for the additional beds that the Department wants to deliver. That is the reality of it. Professor Conor Deasy, not Sinn Féin, is saying that this is costing lives. Other professors are telling us that our hospitals are running at 300% capacity on the Tánaiste’s watch. The hospital in his county is running at that and he is telling us he is doing everything. He is not. What we need is a multiannual plan. We need the Government to allow the Department of Health to fund the beds that are needed and to lift the recruitment embargo to ensure that the staff who are needed in our hospitals are actually recruited. That is a government that cares. I put to him to do those three things and then I will stand up and say, “Yes, this Government does care”.

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