Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Many. This is a quick-fire round. I have tried to be non-political in this matter. There is not enough urgency attached to the mid-west by the Minister and Mr. Reid in particular. I am not going to tolerate what is going on there anymore. I have to hold people to account to a level that has never been seen before. It is going to happen. I spent all morning dealing with cases in the hospital in Limerick. Every time I walk out of the room, that is what I am dealing with. A politician should not be doing that. It is not that I do not want to do it. I am sure the Chairman has to do the same. It is not our role in life and it is not how the health service should function.

The 60-bed modular unit is a year behind. I am not even going to go on about that. That will not solve much. It is not even possible to have infection control. I encountered a case where the staff did not know what was wrong with a woman, yet they could not isolate her because they had not the capacity. They ended up having to take her to a room in Nenagh.

Nenagh is not even ready for that. There are so many issues here. I put it to Mr. Reid that this needs an individual and complete piece of work. It needs a complete, separate entity. It is not Mr. Reid's fault; I have good time for Mr. Reid, which I have put onto the public record, and we have worked closely together. I am not going to tolerate this any more, however. I have been at this for 14 or 15 years but have never seen this before. It is now October and can one imagine what it will be like in February? What the HSE is trying to do relating to budgets is fine, but over the next years the whole thing needs to be recalibrated. It is not currently being discriminated against, but the mid-west needs a €40 million uplift on the current side, not just the capital side, in relation to everything I said earlier. If it does not happen, then the mid-west will be discriminated against. The HSE or the Department cannot say that I did not come up with short-term ideas for how to deal with this. I have recycled these proposals over the last three or four years as the health spokesperson. As for the MRI scanner, one can compare Limerick hospital with Beaumont Hospital to see how far behind Limerick is. I have referred to the situation with doctors and nurses and have spoken on transitional packages. I propose that Limerick hospital be turned into a seven-day hospital. It would help if most things did not stop at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. on Friday. The pathways towards the minor injury units in Nenagh and Ennis need to be extended. I have been saying this for years, and the Minister will admit it.