I have raised a number of times over the years the capacity issues faced by University Hospital Limerick. The huge number of people on trolleys remains unacceptably high. One of the impacts of that is the number of outpatients waiting excessive amounts of time for appointments: 3,244 people have been on outpatient waiting lists for more than 12 months, with 981 of those waiting over 18 months for an appointment. Something that could be done to reduce these numbers is the opening of the new surgical hub at the site of the old Scoil Carmel. That was scheduled to open this month but has now been delayed until the end of the year. Not only is it being delayed, but it will now receive only 50% of the funding it requires to operate properly, making it difficult to complete the 20,000 annual procedures that had been planned for. I welcome the new surgical hub regardless of whether it is delayed, but why is the funding being cut when the Government is fully aware of the crisis in emergency care at University Hospital Limerick?

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The Government has cut it.

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Yes, but the Government is opening a new hub that-----

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