Finance Minister Brian Cowen appealed for more co-operation from the medical profession in acute hospitals to deal with the problem of A&E units.
He told the Dáil that resources were not the only issue in dealing with the problem. "It also involves co-operation from consultants throughout the hospital particularly with elective surgeries that are taking place.
"There's also the question of ensuring that people are allowed to move up the hospital as necessary rather than being left in A&E departments."
It was "most unfortunate, and it seems this will be the case from here to eternity, that when we have a problem in the health service, people simply point the finger at the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Health".
It was not simply a question of trying to improve capacity in A&E units, he told Labour's health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, who said Mr Cowen was being blamed for the delay in publication and implementation of the public capital programme.
The Minister said that looking at A&E units "as being in some way separate from the rest of a hospital is not a means by which these matters can be resolved". The problem was not as acute in many parts of the service as in some hospitals.
"There are reasons why those problems exist in those hospitals, which include the requirement in some instances to improve capacity in A&E but also the requirement for co-operation from everyone else in such hospitals to ensure that priority is given to the resolution of the problem, which is how it will be resolved." He stressed that the full co-operation of everyone in the hospital service was needed.
Labour TD Brendan Howlin (Wexford) intervened and said there were no adult beds in Wexford General Hospital, and patients had to be moved into the children's ward last weekend.
"The question cannot simply be dealt with on the basis of adding to the status quo, but by reorganising the service within the acute hospital system," said Mr Cowen.
"This requires simply the commitment of more resources which are envisaged by the Government in the package announced by the Tánaiste to be implemented later this year."
Ms McManus said the Minister stressed co-operation many times "but what about his co-operation to ensure that the public capital programme is started to meet the needs for additional capacity. No matter how hard the nurses and doctors work, without beds they cannot deal with the crisis."
Pressed repeatedly to state when this year's public capital programme would be announced, the Minister said the health service was undergoing unprecedented modernisation and there was now a central executive responsible for all acute hospital service.
The public capital programme continued and the problems in A&E would be dealt with in the context of the roll-out of that programme.
