Donnelly denies criticising Fine Gael over 'significant' health service problems 

Stephen Donnelly, addressing an online meeting of grassroots Fianna Fáil members on Monday night, said the coalition had inherited waiting lists that were unacceptable.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the coalition had inherited waiting lists that were unacceptable. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said he was not criticising Fine Gael when he said there were “very significant problems” in the health service when the coalition came to office.

Mr Donnelly, addressing an online meeting of grassroots Fianna Fáil members on Monday night, said the coalition had inherited waiting lists that were unacceptable. The Minister is also understood to have highlighted a series of health programmes which had not received promised levels of investment such as the National Cancer Strategy.

He is also understood to have said the "situation when the coalition came into government" was "unacceptable".

However, a spokesperson for Mr Donnelly said there was no "implied or implicit criticism" of Fine Gael in what Mr Donnelly said and that Mr Donnelly has worked closely with his Fine Gael colleagues to address problems in the system.

"The Minister acknowledged that it was a united government, but one which has had to bridge and solve problems. He has said before he came into government that waiting lists were unacceptable and remain so, which is why he implemented the waiting list strategy. This wasn't any implied or implicit criticism of anyone else."

Mr Donnelly also told the meeting that the likelihood was that the true Covid-19 case figures are in the hundreds of thousands every week. He said completely controlling the BA2 variant of Covid-19 would require a lockdown, but the public health advice does not suggest or warrant this.

It is understood Mr Donnelly told the online meeting that the current sub-variant is extremely contagious and would require “quite serious” restrictions to stop its spread.

However, he reiterated the advice from CMO Tony Holohan that further measures are not required at this point.

Mr Donnelly warned colleagues of the massive strain hospitals are now coming under.

“If we’re registering 10,000 to 15,000 cases a day through PCR and antigen tests, you can be sure the actual numbers are several times that much,” he told his party colleagues.

Mr Donnelly said today that he has not received advice to bring back public health restrictions and the issue was not discussed at Cabinet.

A Government spokesperson said this evening that ministers did not discuss Covid-19 as the public health advice has not changed but said that the situation remains under review.

The spokesperson noted that the majority of those in hospital are incidental cases and that ICU figures are holding steady.