The medical board at University Hospital Limerick has, as the Minister of State is aware, warned that the risks to patient care at the hospital remain intolerable and unacceptable. I have spoken countless times in this Chamber over the past decade of the challenges faced by patients and staff at University Hospital Limerick, UHL, and I welcome the intervention of Prof. Devlin of the UHL medical board. Dr. Alan Watts, a consultant in emergency medicine and a member of the board as well, said on the Live 95 FM radio station in Limerick, "There are people on a trolley in the emergency department who should not be there." He said that they should be in a bed and that corridor care is not adequate healthcare. Today, there were 101 people being treated on trolleys and in hospital corridors at UHL. This strips them of their privacy and dignity, yet despite this and despite UHL consistently having the highest number of patients on trolleys in the State, there seems to be no immediate actions being taken to address this crisis. Those who read about the trolley crisis may believe that it only pertains to those in the emergency department. It does not. A walk through the hospital's zones is a walk past numerous trolleys scattered across wards. I have seen this myself. Professor Devlin also has stated that "there are trolleys in corridors all around the hospital". This is a crisis, and it requires a crisis intervention. I am sure the Minister of State will talk about some of the investments and additions that have been made in the last number of years at UHL and the wider mid-west region. There are commitments to open additional beds in Ennis, St John's Hospital and in Nenagh hospital by 2030 or 2031 but we need immediate intervention to tackle the ongoing risk to patient safety caused by the overcrowding at UHL. Put simply, recent Governments have failed to curb the crisis in healthcare at University Hospital Limerick. The new bed unit opened in October last year. While very welcome, it has only reduced the numbers being treated on trolleys by approximately 2%. While any reduction is welcome, this leaves on average 94 people on trolleys every single day in UHL to date this year. The new surgical hubs that could alleviate some of the pressure at UHL will now open at the end of the year and not this month as originally planned. Not only that but the HSE has advised me that it will receive only 50% of the funding needed and that level of funding will struggle to achieve half of the planned 20,000 annual procedures. Will the Minister of State intervene in this issue and speak directly to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill to make sure that we get the 100% funding that we need? I have been advised by staff and patients at UHL that the MRI machines are often not working, which leaves patients taking up beds for longer than is necessary as they wait for their slot for MRIs that work. It is really appalling that in a modern hospital already plagued with overcrowding that such necessary equipment is often broken. The next additional 96-bed unit at UHL is scheduled to open at the end of 2029. It was announced years ago and yet there has been no urgency to swiftly progress it. UHL is not receiving the support that it needs. For instance, if we compare UHL with University Hospital Waterford, despite UHL having double the number of people presenting at the emergency department, University Hospital Waterford has more consultants than UHL. This is a clear demonstration of years of underfunding for the mid-west region. We have a commitment from the Minister that the three recommendations in the HIQA report will be implemented and yet no board of management has been established to deliver this commitment. The HIQA report, which was published on 30 September 2025, stated the mid-west needs 500 acute additional beds. Some 224 days later, the delays in progressing these recommendations is systematic of the lack of urgency, as usual, where UHL is concerned. A project board needs to be established swiftly to deliver these projects. The challenges at UHL stem from bad decisions taken in the 2000s that ignored the concerns raised at the time about capacity. The board at UHL has called for a suspension of staff ceilings and other staffing restrictions in the mid-west. This call needs the Minister of State's support, and we need to ensure that all resources requested are made available to contribute to the ending of the disgraceful situation at UHL.

Sentiment score: -0.05

I am deeply concerned by a part of the Minister of State’s response. He said that, “Under existing plans, we will deliver 420 additional beds by 2031”. He also said that 128 of those beds have already been delivered at UHL but HIQA said in September, when it knew these beds were there, that 500 beds were needed. That is what it said. I spoke to senior officials in the hospital before I came here tonight. I am deeply concerned about that. I am deeply concerned that the mid-west has been left behind for years. We do not just need a small plan to go forward but an intervention. We must realise the mistakes we made in the past. People have been abandoned for years. As I said, Waterford has more consultants than UHL, but we have double the number of people presenting. The staff have been left in an impossible situation where presentations in January and February of this year have increased by 14%. The Government is not planning an extra 14% in its plans. It is actually talking about 300 beds when HIQA says 500 beds are needed. That is a concern. People deserve to be treated properly. When people come to a hospital, they need to be seen, including those presenting at UHL. The people I talk about on trolleys are people who are deemed to be in need of a bed, but no bed is available for them. At UHL, since 2022, we have had 93,000 people on trolleys. I have been at the hospital recently. I am sure the Minister of State has been there as well with relatives and friends. As Professor Joe Devlin said, there are trolleys everywhere. They are all over the place. People are being treated in corridors. Unfortunately, I overheard people’s diagnoses and people in stress. I heard people talking to doctors and nurses, who are doing their very best in an overcrowded situation. The answer is very disappointing. The Minister needs to get involved as a matter of urgency to appoint and get that board up and running. It is 224 days since the HIQA report was published. We need to get that board up and running. We need all three recommendations implemented. We must end the scandal of people in Limerick and the mid-west on trolleys.

Sentiment score: -0.03