Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will not even answer a straight "Yes" or "No" question. I will say it for the Cathaoirleach. I believe UHL was in deep crisis in 2020 and has been now for several years. The hospital trolley figures in 2020, and I am quoting the figures given by the INMO, which the Minister accepted when he was in the Opposition but does not seem to accept any more, were that 9,875 patients were on trolleys. Last year, that figure had grown to 21,409 patients. Through a whole series of awful tragedies and their outworkings, we have seen that this hospital is in the deepest crisis and has got worse over the last four years. The number of people on trolleys has doubled.

My next question is very straightforward. In this context, why has it taken the Minister four years to call for a HIQA review of the emergency care capacity in the mid-west? Sinn Féin has been calling on the Minister to do this since he took office, but it has taken him four years to do it. He only has one year left, maximum, to actually ask for this review. Is this not a catastrophic failure on the part of the Minister in terms of failing the people of the mid-west?