Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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222. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which he will be able to alleviate the congestion at accident and emergency departments in the public hospital system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43438/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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ED overcrowding is a priority issue for the Government. Last December I convened the ED Taskforce to assist in dealing with the challenges presented by ED overcrowding and significant progress has been made to date.

Additional funding of €117 million has been provided in 2015 to relieve pressures on acute hospitals. In April, €74 million was provided to reduce delayed discharges, lower the waiting time for Fair Deal funding and provide additional transitional care beds and home care packages. In July, €18 million provided to support the acute hospital system over the winter period by providing additional bed capacity and other initiatives to support access to care.

In preparation for the 2015/16 winter period, hospital groups have provided comprehensive winter resilience plans to the HSE. This approach is intended both to avoid unnecessary admissions to acute hospitals and to expedite discharges from hospital efficiently.

All hospitals have escalation plans to manage not only patient flow but also patient safety in a responsive, controlled and planned way that supports and ensures the delivery of optimum patient care. Last week I co-signed the ED Congestion Escalation Directive to ensure that progress made to date on overcrowding is improved upon. The Directive requires hospitals to implement their Escalation Plan whenever the Emergency Department experiences overcrowding and it is expected that this will add to the progress made on overcrowding to date.