Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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Yesterday the Minister's boss, the Taoiseach, apologised to the patients who had been left on trolleys. There were 81. Now there are 82. There does not seem to be any change in that regard. The Minister will be aware that the trolley count started when Fianna Fáil was in government. We know that September was a record month and that the number now stands at 82. Does the Minister have anything he would like to say to the staff and patients this morning? I have been there and spoken to the nurses. I was there when we took industrial action several years ago to have additional staff recruited. It was hell on earth then, when the number was always below 40. Is there anything the Minister would like to say to the people in question? The Taoiseach apologised to them yesterday and acknowledged how stressful it was for staff. The figure is only moving in one direction.