The issue of the fair deal scheme was raised by Deputy Micheál Martin. I wish to raise the issue of the shocking situation at South Tipperary General Hospital where 44 patients are on trolleys and the general manager - who I salute - and her full-time staff have asked people to stay away unless it is an emergency. In the hospital which provides services for the other half of County Tipperary, University Hospital Limerick, there are 56 patients on trolleys. A total of 100 people are languishing on trolleys in the hospitals that service Tipperary. Has the Government become immune to these figures? The situation in health is 800% worse than it was when the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, took over, but he is going to be allowed to ignore this issue, the people who are being put through this trauma and anguish and the staff who are under pressure. Is the Government going to do something about it? It is a shocking situation which indicates what the Government thinks of the people of County Tipperary - absolutely nothing.

Last week, the number of patients on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick peaked at 92. When Nenagh hospital was downgraded, we were promised a state-of-the-art facility in University Hospital Limerick. It is obvious that that promise has been broken. I ask the Government to invest in the accident and emergency department in Nenagh hospital.

Having it open 24 hours a day would do something to take the pressure off University Hospital Limerick, which is one of the most overcrowded hospitals in the country. Ninety-two patients on trolleys just does not bear description. I ask the Government to invest in the accident and emergency department in Nenagh, which could do something to alleviate this overcrowding situation.

As the Deputies will know, new bed blocks are under construction-----

No staff.

-----in Clonmel and Limerick. These will provide additional capacity for those hospitals. We know from experience, however, that additional beds alone do not make much of a difference. Other actions are also required: better use of smaller hospitals such as that in Nenagh, for example, as Deputy Cahill mentioned; greater efficiency in how beds are used in order that patients do not wait days for investigations or to see specialists or weeks or months to be discharged to long-term care or home help; and more investment in primary care and community care in order that people do not end up in hospital in the first instance. This is one of the reasons we signed off on a 40% increase in funding for general practice, as agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, only two weeks ago.