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

First, I want to acknowledge that our hospitals all around the country are under a lot of pressure. That is correct. It is driven in part by rising population, increasing frailty, more older people and the availability of more treatments. I know that patients are experiencing conditions in some parts of the country that they should not have to experience. I know that many staff are working under enormous pressure at the moment. We offer them our thanks from this House.

As is almost always the case every Tuesday and Wednesday, however, I have to correct some misinformation the Deputy stated in her question. Increasingly, as is the case with some international politicians, media outlets need to tag on the term "without evidence" or "without proof" to most of what the Deputy says. Increasingly, she says things that are misinformation and that gets broadcast on the news, and it is never stated that it is misinformation. It is important that media outlets take account of that.

First of all, she said our waiting lists are at a record high. They are not. Waiting lists have fallen now for two full years in a row and this will be the third year in which waiting lists in Ireland fall. We have more beds. We have had more than 1,000 extra beds since this Government was formed, including acute day beds and also community beds. Far from there being a recruitment embargo, we have seen a big increase in recruitment. We have never had more people working in our public health service than is the case now. We had 8,000 more staff hired last year alone. The HSE can hire another 2,000 to 3,000 staff this year. We had confirmation today that almost 2,000 consultants have signed the new Sláintecare contract, which is approximately 44%, and there are more every day, which is encouraging. In fact, taking doctors alone, whereas we used to be below the OECD average in terms of doctors per head, we now have four doctors per 1,000 population. That is more than Australia, the US, France and many other countries. What the Deputy is saying often constitutes misinformation. It is important I say that so people know that, and it needs to be reported on as well in my view.

With regard to overcrowding in our hospitals, we have approximately 390 patients this morning waiting for a bed. That is a lot; it is too many. It is lower than we would typically see at this time of year compared to recent previous years. It is important to say that most of those patients will be in a bed by this evening. In some hospitals, there are no patients on trolleys at all, including Waterford and Tullamore, to give just two examples. As we all know, there is a particular challenge in Limerick. As I always say, what is required to eliminate hospital overcrowding are adequate resources and capacity, good clinical leadership and strong management. A comprehensive approach also has to be taken. It is not just about UHL, which I acknowledge. It is also about St. John's Hospital, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital and community services too. We are making significant investments in the hospital. The budget for the hospital increased by 45% in just the past four years. Some 50 extra beds have been opened across the group, 98 of which have been in UHL since 2020. Staff numbers have increased by more than 1,000 under this Government from 2,800 to 3,800. That includes 140 more doctors, 45 more consultants, 340 more nurses and midwives and 84 more health and social care professionals. We are currently building a new block, which will provide 98 additional beds next year, and we are working on a further additional block to be added after that.

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