Yesterday, in hospitals from Tallaght to Ballinasloe and from Blanchardstown to Cork, well over 130 patients languished on trolleys in hospital corridors. Many of them are seriously ill and lying under glaring lights, night and day. All of them are in great discomfort. In Tallaght, 37 patients were on trolleys and 19 were in the corridors beside the emergency room, while that hospital has 35 beds closed in order to save money.

What does the nursing profession have to do to be given the necessary resources to provide beds, given that 3,000 beds are needed? Should some nurses be dispatched with a bottle of champagne to the Punchestown races, in hope of tripping across the Minister for Finance, who might fortuitously be in the company of the Minister for Health and Children? Should they drink a toast to Fianna Fáil, promise a contribution to that party's funds and then return with the resources necessary to care for their patients?

We have this crisis at the beginning of winter, before the real brunt of winter illnesses sets in which will put the elderly, in particular, at risk. Incredibly, we now have a situation where many senior citizens, who could be helped to avoid getting ill and therefore avoid being hospitalised, avoiding further pressure on the hospital system, cannot afford to have the anti-influenza vaccination administered. Whereas the dose is administered from general funding, the administration of it is not and may cost up to €40, €50 or €60. While medical card holders are covered, the limit is only €7,000 per annum and many people are suffering grave hardship as a result. Will the Taoiseach intervene to ensure urgent redress for the lack of hospital beds at the start of this winter and to instruct that all citizens who are at risk from influenza, particularly the elderly, will have the vaccination administered from general funding?

I am aware there were ongoing difficulties in some accident and emergency departments but I am also aware of the considerable resources that have been put into the system by the Minister and the ERHA in the hospitals mentioned. My information is that the Minister for Health and Children recently allocated resources to the ERHA, under the bed capacity initiative, to facilitate the discharge of patients from the acute system to alternative care, thereby allowing for the moving of about 200 patients over the coming weeks in order that emergency cases in A&E departments where there are delays will be provided with an adequate number of beds. Additional A&E consultants were recruited under the winter initiative. They have been appointed specifically to Dublin hospitals. Other issues concerning A&E departments are ongoing in terms of the winter initiative, which the Minister introduced this year and in previous years.

My information is that there is no shortage of the influenza vaccine. All those over the age of 70 and all medical card holders have received it, which accounts for a great number of people. Some 470,000 doses of influenza vaccine were distributed to the health boards and to general practitioners under the influenza campaign. I am aware that an A strain of the flu has been quite severe on children and the elderly. An additional 100,000 doses of the vaccine are available to meet the increased demand in health boards nationwide, which has been notified to the central units of the ERHA. I do not know what the Deputy is talking about in this regard. It is not something on which I have information.

The influenza vaccine is available free to general practitioners for medical card holders and those who come under the ‘at risk' group, who include persons aged 65 or over with special chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease and those who have a suppressed immune system, the majority of whom have a medical card. The issue has been well covered. The fee for administering the vaccine in cases where people have no cover is dealt with by the general practitioner and the patient. Everyone in the country cannot have a medical card.