Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It would be very useful to know what law prevents the Taoiseach from commenting on these issues, and I sincerely hope he is authorised to speak on the issue I will raise with him. Last month was the worst October on record for the number of citizens on trolleys in our hospitals. The number was almost 8,000 people including, infamously, a 91 year old patient who spent 29 hours on a trolley. In the first ten months of this year, almost 80,000 people, which is the population of a small town, were on trolleys, which is the highest ever figure for the first ten months of any year since trolley watch began. According to the INMO, for the 15th month in a row, October 2015 saw an increase in the level of overcrowding in emergency departments.

In Dundalk, 25 year old Dualtagh Donnelly bled to death while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, despite the fact that his family home is only five minutes from the Dundalk ambulance station and five minutes from Louth County Hospital where the accident and emergency department was closed. His mother, Oonagh, said she felt her son died because of politicians' promises. Does the Taoiseach agree with the president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Dr. Gerard Crotty, who said the cause of accident and emergency overcrowding is a lack of capacity because not enough money has been allocated to deal with it? Will he acknowledge that the public health system requires much greater investment by the Government to deal with the crisis?

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