Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)

I thank HIQA for the presentation. It would be remiss of me as a TD for the Limerick and mid-western area not to put on record the policy failures in the past which have led to massive overcrowding in University Hospital Limerick. I do not have to tell anybody in this room that. That has affected every family in Limerick and in the mid-west region. We have had horror stories from people who tried to access the emergency department. What is probably never recorded is the number of people who did not go to the emergency department when they probably should have because they knew they would be waiting for days and days on trolleys. As somebody who has had close relatives, neighbours and friends there, it has been a disaster for so many people. The policy failures in the closures of St. John's, Nenagh and Ennis hospital emergency departments without delivering what was supposed to be the centre of excellence in the mid-west region led to this.

We are in a situation now where it will take us, with the best will, years to get out of the mess that we are in. Trolley numbers have come down slightly since the 96-bed unit opened. My concern would be how long a new 96-bed unit will take. The HSE tells me it will be the end of 2029, which is four years away. I spoke to the Minister. It has to be done quicker than that. There has to be some way that we can get that done quicker. It is simply not good enough to say that there are issues with planning but funding and all the red tape around that has to be agreed.

There are three options, as the witnesses said, options A, B and C. My party has come out in support of that. I think most TDs in the mid-west region have written to the Minister. Today, we co-signed a letter where we all agreed to that. Those three options need to be expanded. My first question is about option A, as we spoke about, and the capacity.

If I am not mistaken, Ms Fitzgerald said in an earlier response that there was sufficient space on the UHL site to deliver the capacity we need, which comes as a surprise to me. Will she explain that?