As the Taoiseach knows, a new 96-bed unit was opened in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, last October. That was very welcome, but it has not addressed the issues at the hospital in the way that some people had forecast. To date, 7,554 people have been on trolleys in UHL. That is a reduction of less than 2% on what was seen last year despite opening that 96-bed unit. UHL has doubled the number of people who attend the hospital in Waterford, which has more consultants, and good luck to it. UHL needs a lot more to be done. One of the small pieces of fixing the jigsaw of the health service in the mid-west region was opening the surgical hub. That was due to open next month but has been delayed until December. That is not the worst thing that could have happened. The worst thing is that it was designed to deal with 20,000-plus day cases, which would take people out UHL and helped to alleviate the issues there. The real kicker here is-----

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-----that we heard from the HSE on Monday that it is only getting 50% of the budget for the surgical hub.

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I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene and make sure that the HSE Mid West gets the 100% of funding it needs to open the new surgical hub.

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It will not be.

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The surgical hub will not be open. The hospital will not have the money.

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That will take years.

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