Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The details that emerged during the inquest of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston were horrific. She did not need surgery; she needed an antibiotic. Instead of receiving the care she needed, she was left to die. On the night that Aoife lay dying, one doctor was trying to manage 191 emergency department patients. Medics at the inquest described the emergency department that night as a war zone and grossly dangerous. Consultant Jim Gray described the emergency department that night as a deathtrap and said it is still a deathtrap. The Minister may have been taken aback by Dr. Gray's remarks but I do not think anybody in the mid-west area was.

UHL is consistently the most overcrowded hospital in the country. It is overcrowded all the time. Today, we learned that last month, it had nearly twice as many patients on trolleys as the second most overcrowded hospital, which was Cork University Hospital. The Minister for Health has conceded that chronic overcrowding means the hospital is not safe. That is what a deathtrap means; it is unsafe. I know the Taoiseach will tell me about the resources that have been invested in UHL, as he has just done, and plans to increase capacity, but additional bed capacity is not coming onstream fast enough. A new 96-bed unit, which is really a 71-bed unit, will come onstream next year. Another 96-bed unit is to be delivered in 2028 and that is if there are no delays. People in the mid-west cannot wait that long, and they should not have to. They do not have to. A fully operational 53-bed hospital in Limerick city, the landmark Barrington's hospital, has just come on the market with a guide price of €12.5 million. This presents a unique opportunity for the Government to act decisively and speedily to at least address part of the problem in UHL.

Aoife Johnston and many others were failed by the State. We cannot fail any more people in that way. Was the Government alerted in advance to the sale of Barrington's hospital? Is the State considering buying the hospital or is it investigating if this is an option? Finally, if the Government is not interested in buying the hospital, why not?

See this speech in context