As the Tánaiste knows, Letterkenny General Hospital was devastated by a flood last July. A total of 40% of the floor space of the hospital was contaminated by flood water. The response from the staff and management as those flood waters were coming into the accident and emergency department and the rest of the hospital was nothing short of heroic. The heroism shown by the staff and management has continued since then with the extra hours they have had to work and the establishment of temporary departments.

Prior to the flood, Deputy Pearse Doherty and I revealed that, based on the number of inpatients going through the hospital per year, Letterkenny General Hospital had the lowest hospital budget in the State and the lowest number of allocations of medical staff. Again and again, patients had suffered in Donegal because of this injustice. As I speak, there is once again a crisis at the hospital's accident and emergency department. Such is the extent of that crisis that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said they are the worst conditions it has seen in 15 years. Patients across the county are being diverted to Sligo Regional Hospital.

I ask the Tánaiste to state whether the Government will remove the moratorium and allow the management of Letterkenny General Hospital to allocate the necessary nurses and medical staff to run the hospital effectively. Will it meet the heroism of the staff who have worked unbelievable hours in unbelievable conditions to keep that hospital going halfway and give them an additional allocation of staff to help them to do their jobs?

I recall the flooding that happened at Letterkenny General Hospital. First of all, I agree with Deputy Mac Lochlainn about the heroic work by the staff at the hospital. They have worked in very difficult circumstances and deliver a very fine service to the people of the catchment area. I had the privilege of visiting Letterkenny General Hospital some time ago and seeing that work for myself.

The funding for and staffing of the hospital are matters to be pursued with the HSE. The Government is committed to maintaining the maximum amount of health funding possible in profoundly difficult economic circumstances, as we all know. This year, the HSE will have over €13 billion available to spend. The amount that is available to the health service this year is greater than that budgeted at the start of last year. The Government has met supplementary requests from the HSE to meet its requirements each year so far in the context of the overall management of the public finances. The Revised Estimates have now been published and it is the responsibility of every Department and agency to live within the allocation. In the context of the Revised Estimates, we were able to find an extra €47 million to give the health service - extra money to manage the delivery of health services.

The issue raised by Deputy Mac Lochlainn relating to staffing must be dealt with in the context of the Haddington Road agreement. There are procedures provided for in the agreement that address the issue of staffing and the requirements of individual hospitals. That is something that must be worked out between the hospital and the HSE within the framework that was agreed in the Haddington Road agreement.

Yesterday, the daughter of Máire Uí Dhomhnaill, an elderly cancer patient, told her mother's story. She was brought to that hospital at 5 p.m. last Monday evening and waited in the accident and emergency department for 14 hours in unbelievable conditions until 7 a.m. the following morning. Another woman who attended the accident and emergency department with her husband said:

The whole unit was swarming and heaving with people, patients, bodies and staff. Our hospital was completely overwhelmed. There were no beds available in the hospital, the emergency unit was stacked to bursting.

They are just two stories. Both families praised the nurses and doctors to the nth degree. They were certainly not the ones who failed those families and so many others. The Government's cutbacks and moratorium have led to this debacle. The Tánaiste knows that, I know that and every Deputy in this House knows that. When is the Government going to remove the moratorium on vital front-line staff to prevent scenarios like those described by these families? The dignity of their loved ones was taken away. That is no way to deliver a health service. The Tánaiste knows the reasons so I implore him to act. Everybody who knows about that hospital knows that the heroism was remarkable in keeping the hospital going. A total of 40% of its floor space was contaminated, which is an unprecedented crisis for a hospital. In light of the hours they worked and the fact that they did what they could, they cannot continue to be failed. They are literally at breaking point not just in terms of the accident and emergency department, but other departments. Will the Tánaiste stand up now, remove the moratorium and stand by the staff and management of that hospital?

Obviously, I do not know the particular circumstances of the case raised by the Deputy but I will make inquiries about that because everybody in the country is entitled to good quality attention and service when they attend a hospital. I know that hospital staff in Letterkenny and other hospitals are extremely attentive to patients when they present and do an outstanding job. The public rightly is in their debt for that.

The staffing arrangements in hospitals were addressed in the Haddington Road agreement which provided for changes to be made in rostering, overtime and staffing arrangements. Some of that has to be worked through at individual hospital level and with the HSE. There is something in the order of about five million hours overall nationally that must be worked through in discussions at hospital level and with the HSE. These arrangements have been agreed by all of the unions.

It is now a matter of working those through, ensuring that members of the public gets the attention they deserve when they attend hospitals and ensuring that hospital staff get the support they need and deserve.