South Tipperary General Hospital is a success story despite swingeing cuts to budgets and staff numbers and a shortage of beds. I compliment and thank all of the staff at the hospital, from the newest recruit to senior management, who work in partnership and as a team in delivering quality hospital services under very difficult circumstances.

In November 2008, in response to the HSE and the Department of Health proposals to downgrade the hospital and to transfer all of its acute services - medicine, surgery, maternity, paediatrics and emergency department - to Kilkenny and Waterford, the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee was formed. Working with the whole hospital community, all stakeholders and the public, the committee responded to the threat and put 15,000 people onto the streets of Clonmel to stop the proposals in their tracks. Success saw a huge increase in hospital activity, a significant increase in inpatient admissions, and a virtual explosion in outpatient and emergency department attendances. Side by side with this we had budget cuts, staff cuts and shortages of beds. The hospital today works at 120% capacity overall. The medical department works at approximately 150% capacity. Unfortunately, given that the hospital regularly has 40 or more patients on trolleys we are consistently near the top of the trolley watch figure. Last week the hospital had to appeal to the public not to attend the emergency department because of the huge overcrowding.

Despite the best efforts of staff, the conditions for patients in that overcrowded emergency department are totally unacceptable. Staff are under constant pressure every minute of every day. Fortunately, pressure was applied and led to the approval of a new 40-bed modular unit for the hospital, and after several false dawns that unit is now under construction and will be completed at the end of July. It was supposed to have been completed by June of last year. However, there have been significant delays in approving funding for equipping and staffing the unit. It is required urgently and should be opened immediately upon completion. I want the Tánaiste to confirm today and give us a guarantee that this unit will not be the subject of the staff freeze which was announced last week by the HSE. Will the Tánaiste assure us that staff numbers and funding will be agreed by the HSE and that the unit will not be subject to a phased opening into next year? It should be fully opened on completion because the hospital desperately needs beds.

I thank the Deputy for his very reasonable approach to this issue. It is true to say that South Tipperary General Hospital has been under pressure, as have other hospitals, through the winter. Looking at the national picture, it is true to say that the trolley count through the winter months this year was about 13% less than last year and the lowest for the past five years. That being said, many individual hospitals, including South Tipperary General Hospital, have been under pressure at different times. There is a capacity issue in Tipperary, which is why the Government is committed to and has funded the building of a 40-bed modular unit to add capacity. It is under construction and will open mid-summer. My understanding is that there will not be staffing difficulties associated with the new unit, but I will revert to the Deputy later today with an exact response from the HSE on that matter.

On the circular from the HSE concerning staffing freezes, which has been raised this week in the House, where there are plans that are within the spending estimates of this year, there are no problems in terms of taking on more staff. In fact, the ambition is to take on significantly more staff this year, but that ambition has to be managed from a cost perspective. I will revert to the Deputy on the staffing implications of a new 40-bed modular unit in south Tipperary. It makes no sense to open that new unit with the aim of increasing capacity and taking pressure off the existing hospital infrastructure if appropriate staffing is not lined up to ensure that the unit can do what it is intended to do. I will revert to the Deputy later today with a more precise response on the staffing implications, the staffing decisions and the financing of it.

The concern around staffing stems from the fact that the HSE has form in allowing units to be completed and then allowing them to lie vacant for quite considerable lengths of time. We have only to look at Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel, just 15 miles down the road. Some €14 million was spent on that facility, it was in pristine condition, but it has been vacant, with not a bed in it, for the past ten years. Something similar happened in South Tipperary General Hospital in the early 2000s. I am asking the Tánaiste to instruct the HSE to exempt this unit from any staffing freeze and to agree the business case and the staffing proposals from hospital management which have been with the HSE for the past 12 months. This unit must be opened urgently. The hospital is under severe pressure. It is doing excellent work under very difficult circumstances. I welcome the Tánaiste's indication that he will come back to me later today on some of the issues I have raised.

Under the capacity programme for 2019, which has been agreed, provision is made for increases in capacity. As set out in the national service plan for 2019, 78 additional beds are planned for quarter one of this year, including a 40-bed modular build in South Tipperary General Hospital, which the Deputy referred to. The plan also refers to other hospitals. Funding has been provided in the national service plan 2019 to facilitate the opening of the modular build at South Tipperary General Hospital, and the HSE has advised that the project is at an advanced stage. There is no reason that this building should not open once it is completed. It should serve the purpose it is being built for, which is to relieve pressure on South Tipperary General Hospital from a beds capacity perspective. I will get back to the Deputy with the precise costing for staff to ensure it gets across the line.