Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

It was recently announced that the Health Service Executive is putting out to tender for four private hospitals in the campus of existing public hospital areas. One of those is Limerick Regional Hospital. I wonder what is evolving in the health service. In the Limerick area there is already permission for two private hospitals. During the week a private hospital recently established in Galway announced 150 redundancies because of lack of agreement with the VHI on rates. In my area I see the difficulty of accessing public hospitals for the elderly due to the reduction of beds on those public hospitals, and I am sure other politicians see the same. The biggest problem in my area is not the distinction between private and public, but the number of elderly people in hospital beds, such as those in Limerick Regional Hospital. Through no fault of those elderly, one cannot access operations and intensive care units. So where is the problem? Rather than talk about private hospitals we should establish a respite location in Limerick Regional Hospital to take these people out of the main hospital, because they cannot get into St. Ita's or St. Camillus's hospitals. Will we have a rash of private hospitals sustained by Government taxation measures to incentivise them, leading to a reduction in the number of beds in public hospitals? Is this the Government's plan for the future?