On Sunday, Dr. Fergal Hickey, an emergency consultant at Sligo University Hospital, stated that up to 350 patients are dying each year as a result of hospital overcrowding and that delays in securing intensive care beds for patients are increasing the risk of patient mortality. As winter approaches, the number of patients on emergency department trolleys is increasing once again. I do not have the figures for today but 450 patients were waiting for beds yesterday. Once again, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda had one of the highest numbers.

This morning, cardiologists at the Mater hospital serving adult patients with congenital heart defects warned that the service was being stretched to a critical point. The two consultants working in the service stated that they were dealing with approximately 4,000 patients and had insufficient resources, staffing and laboratory access. One of the consultants, Professor Kevin Walsh, told "Morning Ireland" that the service's lack of resources was putting lives at risk. He stated that the service should have four full-time consultants and five full-time nurses. However, it has just two part-time consultants and two nurses. That is for almost 4,000 patients, with 400 accessing the service year on year. There is also a shortage of secretarial and administrative support. The Taoiseach will agree that this situation is shocking.

Last week, Ministers made grand claims about an increase in the budget for the health service.

The reality is these pronouncements were deceptive and grossly exaggerated. The bulk of the increase in funding is required simply to stand still. It will have little impact on waiting lists, the trolley crisis and inadequately resourced services. The Taoiseach knows that when the money required to cover pay restoration, estimated at €97 million, and demographics, estimated at approximately €119 million, is stripped away, the budget increase for health shrinks to just €147 million. I am sure the Taoiseach will acknowledge this as grossly insufficient. Sinn Féin's alternative budget proposed an additional €465 million investment in health over and above payments for demographics and the Lansdowne Road agreement. Our budget is fully costed.

Will the Taoiseach commit to going back to the drawing board to ensure services such as the acute cardiology unit in the Mater can be adequately resourced? Will he take on board what hospital consultants like Dr. Hickey and Professor Walsh are saying?

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I do not propose to go back to the drawing board but I take a genuine interest in the matter raised by the Deputy. The detail available on the Department of Health website gives a clear understanding, the facts and figures for the budget allocation for 2017 as being the highest ever allocated to the health portfolio. It is an increase of over €500 million to the HSE this year. This has been gone through in great detail both by the HSE and by the Department of Health and its Minister. It is there for all to see.

I listened this morning with interest to the interview with Professor Walsh, who is clearly a very learned man in his profession. Some €900 million more was provided this year, for 2017, when compared with last year. Professor Walsh spoke very clearly about the situation In the national adult congenital centre at the Mater hospital. It is because of the success of the interventions in paediatric services that the numbers of young people requiring the service is growing. It is a challenge of success. The survival rate for paediatric cases, like young Laura Clifford from Sligo, who spoke so well this morning, was 10% but it has now reached 90%, which is of course something that everybody would support. That means an increase in survivors will require a greater need from adult services.

The position spoken of is a highly specialist field. That post is to be divided between the children's hospital in Crumlin and the Mater in order to support the transition from paediatric care to adult care. The money is available for the post. This was advertised in terms of an additional cardiologist post in 2012 and again in 2015 but no application was received for the job. I am not sure if that is because of the range of facilities, remuneration, the structure of the job or whatever else. These jobs are advertised on a worldwide basis. Given the success rate increase from 10% to 90%, and given that the money is there to fill the position, there were no applications. In order for the post to be filled, it is being restructured across both the Mater and Crumlin hospitals and it will be readvertised shortly.

In light of the development of an all-island congenital heart disease network, which the Minister, Deputy Harris, signed recently, children from Northern Ireland will be able to come to Crumlin hospital for very specialist heart surgery. It is expected that a greater pool of potential candidates will now be available for the post and recruitment could well be successful. The money is in place to provide for the cardiologist to be appointed. I hope it happens.

The Taoiseach states he does not intend going back to the drawing board, which is unacceptable. What are the 350 patients dying each year because of overcrowding to do? Are they to just die? What about the 4,000 patients who have two part-time consultants and two nurses? Do they just have to put up with it? Is that the way it is?

No.

The Taoiseach cannot pretend that an expenditure of €147 million will solve the crisis in our health service. These words are not coming from me but from the people working in the services, including in one case - and by the Taoiseach's own acknowledgement - a very learned person. The consultants running the health service say they are dealing with an unsustainable burden caused by poor resources. When resources are not provided, services cannot deliver.

In fairness to the health service, we know that when resources are provided, it does deliver. For the children with congenital heart defects who attend the paediatric unit in Crumlin children's hospital, for example, there is a 95% patient success rate. That particular service is considered to be world class, which is the very least our citizens deserve in all aspects of health care. They do not deserve to have their lives put at risk. They have an entitlement to a wraparound public health services that looks after everyone from cradle to grave. Does the Taoiseach agree that he has failed to provide such a service because his vision is for a privatised, as opposed to a public, health system?

The Deputy's final comment is completely false and without any foundation. There are now 600 more consultants in the health service than was the case in 2007 and a bed capacity review is being conducted by the Minister for Health. This is not just about acute hospitals, however. It is also about primary care, new GP contracts, home-care services and packages and so on. It is not all about money either, but €14.6 billion is a very substantial budget with which to attempt to deal with the many challenges in the health care area. Of course problems of a cyclical nature of one sort or another will arise, whether weather-related, epidemics or whatever. The Minister for Health has taken responsibility for the Vote. It is a very challenging position but that €14.6 billion is a very substantial allocation to allow us to proceed with the review that is being carried out in terms of output and the development of the delivery of effective services for all patients.

I reiterate that the vacancy at the Mater hospital is one that is split between itself and Crumlin. The money is in position for a consultant cardiologist. It is a worldwide position and if anybody out there is interested in applying to the Mater, let he or she do so. There is a vacancy there and money to pay the person who fills it.