David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I make the general point I have raised at this committee and publicly that funding for existing levels of service for health in 2024 was grossly underestimated. The deficit for last year was quite significant and very little of that was put into the base for 2024. It was always going to be the case we would quickly see spending ahead of profile in health, and that is what we are seeing. It is not a way to run or fund a Department. I do not blame the Secretary General; I blame the political system and the Government for not properly funding health. It is a poor way to fund a health service. I will leave that one because it is a matter for Government and we will take it up with Government.

I move to University Hospital Limerick and the mid-west region. I ask Mr. Watt first and Mr. McCallion might want to come in as well. Members of this committee visited the hospital some time ago. There is a plan the Minister put in place a number of weeks ago when he visited. Many of the elements of that plan are sticking plaster solutions and temporary but there is a need for additional capacity in Limerick.

I need to pose the question about acute capacity in the mid-west but before I do, I will speak of my experience. I live in Waterford, as the witnesses know, which is another wonderful part of the country. Not far from where I live, there is a model 4 university hospital in Waterford, which, as the witnesses know, is performing well. In Wexford, there is a model 3 general hospital with an emergency department. St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny, which is not too far away, is a model 3 hospital. There is also a model 3 university hospital in Clonmel, County Tipperary. Within a short radius, there are four emergency departments, three model 3 hospitals and a model 4 hospital, and yet, in the mid-west, there is only one model 4 hospital and no model 3 hospitals. I know that whatever we do must be clinically and medically underpinned and I support that. Whatever service we provide must be safe. Surely, however, given what we can see in other regions, there is now a need for the Department to seriously consider a model 3 hospital for the mid-west region. Is that being considered by the Department? I will come back to Mr. McCallion.