When Cork University Hospital, CUH, CEO, Jennifer Kearney, raised serious staffing and patient safety concerns in August, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, lashed out, accusing the hospital of mismanaging its budget. She dismissed those concerns and repeatedly held up the mid-west as an example of sound financial management.

On Monday, mid-west TDs and Senators were briefed on a similar staffing crisis in their hospitals, with patient care seriously compromised by recruitment restrictions. Those restrictions imposed by the Ministers, Deputy Carroll MacNeill and Deputy Chambers, are having devastating consequences for patients and staff. South-west Oireachtas Members have received no such briefing, only positive news stories about CUH. The Minister has created a climate in which our regional managers are afraid to publicly acknowledge the crisis in CUH. Meanwhile, hospital managers and senior clinicians who courageously raise patient safety concerns risk being undermined, scapegoated and even sanctioned.

CUH is in the Taoiseach's constituency. It is our regional hospital. Almost every family in Cork has a connection with it. When will the Taoiseach stand up for CUH and put an end to these unworkable and unsafe recruitment restrictions?

The Deputy has some nerve. He has some nerve to ask when will I stand up for CUH. No one has overseen more investment in CUH than I have, particularly when I was the Minister for Health.

Have you talked to any of the doctors?

Deputy, please, allow an answer.

I am just saying to the Deputy that there is a new maternity unit. It is there a good while now but that did not happen by accident. There are the cardiac and renal centre. There has been huge investment and the population has grown and all of that. Let us not get into whether I will or will not stand up for CUH.

No, but the recruitment freeze-----

I will make this point. There have been huge funding increases for CUH. It has increased by 109% over the past five years. It has gone from €306 million to €636 million over the past five years. That has driven notable growth in staffing numbers.

Is this just imaginary?

There has been an expansion of the workforce and there will be continuing investment. On the safety issue, the Minister did not lash out. The Minister asked Dr. Colm Henry, the chief clinical officer of the HSE, to go down to CUH because safety is important. Nothing has emerged from any examinations that there is a safety issue. Of course, there are pressures. There are real issues there and we have to manage those.

I thank the Taoiseach. Deputy Charles Ward is next.

You have to work with people to ensure there is good management in those situations.