Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. We had representatives of Bainne Beatha before our committee some months ago and they engaged with the Minister as well. It is a really good group for giving advice and a guide to the Department. It should maintain those links and keep contact as the Department continues to fill the positions.

I will revert to the elective hospitals. We saw before Christmas that the Cabinet approved the progression of elective hospitals for Cork, Dublin and Galway. I admit I was devastated to see the mid-west left out. I know this has come from a recommendation system but the Minister visited the mid-west just six days ago, visiting University Hospital Limerick, the one hospital in Ireland that has incessantly the highest numbers of people on trolleys. It is under pressure every day and at a crisis point most weeks. There is a real feeling in the mid-west, both in healthcare staff currently in the hospital system but also in many retired people in the HSE and the hospital system who now have the liberty to speak a little more freely. They have said in the media, including on Clare FM and Limerick radio, that the solution to this must be an elective hospital in the mid-west to ease the burden and the pressures faced by University Hospital Limerick.

I brought up this matter just last week with Mr. Robert Watt and Mr. Paul Reid. The area should still be in the mix. I also believe there is a potential solution because there is a private hospital on the cusp of being developed in the small village of Coonagh, which sits right on the Clare and Limerick border. It is so accessible to the entire region. There will be a private 150-bed hospital built there. I have chatted to the Minister privately about this but I would like the Department to scope a little about getting some public capacity there to bring elective procedures out of University Hospital Limerick to this new facility.