Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding University Hospital Limerick, there are many good people doing their best with historically insufficient capacity in terms of beds, theatres and staffing. We are working on that. I have been clear with the hospital that changes are needed in how patients are cared for there. I am not sure the Deputy was present for it, but I cited the example of University Hospital Waterford, which has approximately half the staffing contingent that Limerick has in terms of emergency care and so on. It rosters its senior decision makers to be present for much longer than is the case in Limerick. One of the solutions is for senior decision makers to be on site in the evenings and at the weekends. We have to scale up and invest in order to make that sustainable. I find it unusual that the hospital management is not on site.