There are fewer long-term community care beds for elderly people in many areas across the State than there were when the current Government came to power in 1997, figures show.
The figures released by the Health Service Executive show that in 11 areas there are fewer community care beds now than in 1997. These areas include Dublin South City and counties Laois, Offaly, Longford, Westmeath, Sligo, Leitrim, Limerick, Clare, North Tipperary and Meath. The number of beds in these areas is down 416.
In six other areas including Mayo, Galway, Louth, Cavan/Monaghan, Kildare and the south-east community bed numbers increased by 178.
The figures were given to Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus in reply to a Dáil question. They indicate that overall in these areas there are now 238 fewer community care beds than there were in 1997.
Comparative figures were not made available for other areas such as Dublin north, west, east and southwest, or Cork and Kerry.
Ms McManus said the head of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, had been saying providing more acute beds did not make sense and that what was needed to solve the A&E crisis was more community beds.
"If that is the case, perhaps he could explain to us why numbers of community beds are falling in so many parts of the country."
Furthermore she said she had been waiting for the HSE to produce the "incomplete" information since last November.
"How does Prof Drumm know that we need more community beds if his own officials are not even in a position to produce complete information on this?"