Mr. Bernard Gloster:

To be fair to the people working in Limerick, they have come in for much focus on the downsides. In commenting on Limerick, I want to balance that by saying that much good work happens in that hospital. I know the Senator agrees with that. She and I both live within the remit of that hospital. The cancellation in August was a planned intervention to essentially de-escalate the hospital and take the heat out of it. I do not want to be disparaging but the hospital had overheated to a point where to allow that to continue would have meant that we would move into the space of being unsafe. First and foremost, we have to ensure we make sure the site is safe on any day.

Last year, despite many of the criticisms, Limerick delivered one of the highest levels of improvement in scheduled care waiting times, including surgeries, so it was well ahead. The two weeks is always discomforting. I do not want to mislead anyone. I suspect that, probably for the next couple of weeks and months, there will be days on which activity on the waiting list side will have to go down to accommodate pressure on the emergency side of the trolley. Equally, we will find every opportunity to balance that. The long-term solution to that in Limerick is the 96-bed block, which is the second block. We had a 16-bed drop just before Christmas. We have had some planning difficulties and other difficulties regarding the surgical hub, but we will have that. As the Senator knows, we use the private sector for waiting lists and Limerick will have a super new private hospital in the coming months. All of that will add to the capacity of the region while we are building those additional blocks. I will not give her any false promises. It is difficult but it is all being done in the best interests of the people.