Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----and it is getting worse. When a former Minister, Mary Harney, declared a national emergency during the last Fianna Fáil Government, there were 469 patients on trolleys. Another former Minister, Senator James Reilly, said we would never again see 569 people on trolleys, and then we reached 615. It is clear that while there may be hospitals that are working well or better or doing innovative things, there are also hospitals that need a hand. We have to examine the reasons some hospitals are clearly struggling. It is not for want of effort on the part of the staff. The Minister knows that.