Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No matter what way the Tánaiste wants to spin it, we were sent pictures yesterday from individuals who were in University Hospital Limerick as 92 patients were lying on trolleys in corridors, wards and the accident and emergency department. The pictures are of ward 1A with padlocks and a chain around the gate. There are 17 beds behind those doors that could be accommodating these patients. However, Limerick is not the only hospital that has wards that are closed. In my local hospital in Letterkenny, there is a 20-bed ward in respect of which the Government has given sanction to open only ten of the beds, despite the fact that every day, every week, we see patients on trolleys. While the Tánaiste tries to claim that the Government is doing so much better, the reality is that there are 531 patients on trolleys today, hospitals are being deemed unsafe and his own local hospital in Cork had to invoke status black, which means it is unsafe to admit a patient into the hospital regardless of the circumstances. There is complete and utter chaos in our health service. This is not just about the discomfort of not having a hospital bed; it is about the treatment and the health outcomes. Those on the front line are telling us-----

See this speech in context