Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Of course the numbers are growing. Our population is growing and the need is growing. Baffling people with figures that are out of context does not tell the real truth. Waiting lists are not falling, according to the hospital consultants the Taoiseach mentioned. They are saying they are going to increase by 11% this year, so we will have 746,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments and just under 1 million waiting for hospital appointments. I suppose the Taoiseach thinks the waiting lists for assessments of need or for therapies are not facts either, does he? They are facts and we have evidence all over the place of them.

On the understaffing of our hospitals, as I mentioned, I got the figures. In the Ireland East Hospital Group, the figure is -12 for Wexford General Hospital; -21 for St. Michael's Hospital, -4 for Loughlinstown hospital; and -27 for Lourdes hospital. We can go on through the list. The figures are -41 in south Tipperary hospital and -57 in St. Luke's in Kilkenny. In all of those cases, the jobs are not being advertised, or only a fraction of the number that even the HSE acknowledges are needed are being advertised because there is a de facto embargo. That is what the pay and numbers strategy is. The Taoiseach admitted the truth when he mentioned budgets. The Government is setting staff ceilings even when we need staff in vital areas to address the needs.

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