Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the daughter of Máire Uí Dhomhnaill, an elderly cancer patient, told her mother's story. She was brought to that hospital at 5 p.m. last Monday evening and waited in the accident and emergency department for 14 hours in unbelievable conditions until 7 a.m. the following morning. Another woman who attended the accident and emergency department with her husband said:

The whole unit was swarming and heaving with people, patients, bodies and staff. Our hospital was completely overwhelmed. There were no beds available in the hospital, the emergency unit was stacked to bursting.

They are just two stories. Both families praised the nurses and doctors to the nth degree. They were certainly not the ones who failed those families and so many others. The Government's cutbacks and moratorium have led to this debacle. The Tánaiste knows that, I know that and every Deputy in this House knows that. When is the Government going to remove the moratorium on vital front-line staff to prevent scenarios like those described by these families? The dignity of their loved ones was taken away. That is no way to deliver a health service. The Tánaiste knows the reasons so I implore him to act. Everybody who knows about that hospital knows that the heroism was remarkable in keeping the hospital going. A total of 40% of its floor space was contaminated, which is an unprecedented crisis for a hospital. In light of the hours they worked and the fact that they did what they could, they cannot continue to be failed. They are literally at breaking point not just in terms of the accident and emergency department, but other departments. Will the Tánaiste stand up now, remove the moratorium and stand by the staff and management of that hospital?

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