I must go back to the issue of capacity in our hospitals and to a question I put to the Taoiseach previously that he refused to answer. I refer to the closure of St. Brigid's hospital, Carrick-on-Suir, a wonderful facility that is over 200 years old. HIQA has deemed it unsuitable. However, it was deemed suitable for use as a Covid-19 hospital by HIQA at the beginning of the pandemic. If it was deemed suitable for Covid patients, how is it not suitable now for providing respite and palliative care? It is a 14-bed hospital, with three palliative care beds and wonderful staff. The hospital has enjoyed huge buy-in from the community and huge support. Indeed, much of the equipment in it was provided by local community fundraising efforts in three counties, namely, south Tipperary, south Kilkenny and east Waterford. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, has refused to meet Councillors Kieran Bourke and David Dunne, the action committee or the staff, the excellent nurses and doctors associated with the hospital. She has point-blank refused to meet them. I ask the Tánaiste, as a member of a partnership Government, to ensure that the Minister of State meets the people to whom I refer.

I have received a letter from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who is a neighbour from down the road. Her own constituents use this hospital, which flies in the face of what she is doing. The letter states that another wonderful facility, St. Theresa's hospital, Clogheen, and nursing homes have been booked for step-down and respite care but that is simply untrue. Last Thursday, Covid patients were admitted to St. Theresa's hospital, Clogheen, and all other patients were moved out, under the supervision and management of its wonderful matron, Ms Walsh, and her team. There have been no negotiations with private nursing homes.

We are told that a new hospital would cost €5 million to €6 million and I want that examined. I want an independent arbitrator to evaluate what is wrong with St. Brigid's and how much it would cost to put it right in order to reach HIQA standards. This was done in Clogheen two years ago. An excellent job was done, with six-bed wards converted to four-bed wards. There is room for an extension on site and there is also room to build a new hospital on site.

The Minister of State refers to a diabetic clinic in St. Brigid's but a huge monstrosity has already been built by the HSE. It is meant to be a primary care centre but it is not functioning properly. It is two-thirds empty and a diabetic clinic could be located there. I want answers from the Tánaiste today. The people want to know how much it would cost to make the hospital HIQA-compliant. Other hospitals that got worse reports from HIQA were commandeered for Covid-19 and have now reverted to normal hospitals. There is something vindictive going on with regard to St. Brigid's. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, must meet the staff and the action committee to explain what is happening. Something is not right here. We are not getting the full truth or even half of it. This is an excellent facility and the palliative care beds therein are badly needed. There are only two palliative care beds in Clogheen and none at all in Clonmel. Palliative care beds are badly needed in the south east of Tipperary. Clogheen is now off the radar because it is being used as a Covid-19 step-down facility. St. Brigid's in Carrick-on-Suir was available for that purpose but the HSE decided to close it in the middle of a pandemic. Talk about iillogical. This strange and bizarre decision is totally unacceptable and it will not be accepted.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. In terms of the overall picture on hospital capacity, everyone acknowledges that we are doing so much better now than has been the case for a very long time. January is usually a period when our hospitals have no spare beds and when we hear every morning about hundreds of people being forced to spend some of their hospital stay on trolleys. As of today, for example, we have 400 to 500 beds free across our system. There were 121 patients on trolleys this morning but mainly for clinical reasons. In Clonmel this morning there is nobody on a hospital trolley awaiting admission to a bed. The Deputy will know how different that is from the experience that we have often had at this time of year in our hospitals. That is down to the winter plan, the additional bed capacity in our hospitals and in the community and the amazing work of the staff in our hospitals and across our health service.

I do not have an up-to-date note on St. Brigid's with me but I know the Deputy has raised it previously. My understanding is that it was closed to overnight patients because it did not meet HIQA standards but it will continue to be developed as a healthcare hub for the area, including a diabetic clinic which the Deputy mentioned, as well as primary and community care. I will get more information on it for the Deputy and will let the Minister for Health and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, know that he has raised it again in the House.

There is one final thing I wish to say before finishing up. I want to recognise the very considerable milestone that was reached yesterday, namely, that 3 million polymerase chain reaction, PCR, tests have been carried out in Ireland since the pandemic began. That is more tests per head than many of the countries with which we are often compared like Germany, Finland and Australia. I congratulate everybody working in our testing system in the laboratories, swabbing centres and in management in back offices, for having reached that considerable milestone. They deserve to be congratulated for that.

I do not know why the Tánaiste cannot answer the question I asked. I accept that he does not have up-to-date information on St. Brigid's but I asked why a hospital that was deemed to be suitable for Covid patients last March was deemed unsuitable for any overnight patients in November. That is a simple question. I also ask that Ministers and the HSE stop sending out letters that are untrue. I do not want to use the word "lies" but it is untrue to say that Clogheen is available because it has now been designated as a Covid hospital, which is a pity.

The Tánaiste spoke about trolleys and referred to the national figures. I salute those on the front line, including the nursing staff and deplore the way they have been blackguarded with regard to vaccines and so forth. However, the hospitals are empty or have capacity because the fear of God has been put into the people by RTÉ and by the Tánaiste himself. He appeared on Claire Byrne's show the other night and told the people that they are going to be locked up forever. Fear has been instilled in people, which is having an effect on their mental health. That is why the hospitals do not have people in them like every other year. People are afraid of their lives. They cannot go to their GPs in my area and can only speak to them over the phone. They are sent straight in for a Covid test, which is why we have such a high number of tests. Fear is stalking the land. That is why the hospitals have spare capacity, although I am glad they have capacity. That said, the Government wasted eight or nine months when it did not build additional ICU capacity.

People have good reason to be afraid. This pandemic is real. There are 3,000 families across the country who have lost loved ones and are still grieving for them. Had it not been for the actions that people took individually and as a community, as well as the actions that Government took, we would be experiencing much higher levels of mortality and sickness than we have now. At least until we have a critical mass of the population vaccinated and we develop new treatments, there are reasons for people to be afraid.

We have increased ICU capacity. As the Deputy knows, ICU is not just about a bed but is a whole system of care. We have the beds and we have the kits but training up the staff has to be done over a period of years. We have increased ICU capacity and are using that surge capacity at the moment. It is encouraging that the number of patients in hospital is now falling. It peaked at around 2,000 and is at around 1,700 now and we will see that reflected in the ICU numbers in the coming days.