John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputies Costello and O'Sullivan for raising this issue and apologise that the Minister cannot be here.

The HSE accepts that emergency departments have experienced significant increases in the numbers attending to date in January. The work to rule currently in operation by staff at the HSE has led to a disruption in the HSE's normal data collection on activity in emergency departments. As a result data is limited with effect from 25 January.

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