Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter, which is an important and urgent issue. It is not important to the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, because, once again, he has not bothered to turn up. I know he does not turn up to Topical Issue debates and I do not know how to get him to turn up. I have been elected to the Dáil for over three years. I have tabled a number of Topical Issue matters on this issue and the Minister has never once turned up. The Ministers of State, Deputies Finian McGrath, Catherine Byrne and Jim Daly, have come to the House, but never the Minister, Deputy Harris. He does not respond to the letters we send, requests to meet Oireachtas Members or letters signed by a number of Oireachtas Members from across the mid-west region.

This is a crisis. The Minister should be ashamed of himself, not just for not turning up to address my Topical Issue matter, which I can live with, but because he allows what is happening in the emergency department in University Hospital Limerick to continue day after day. Today 81 people were on trolleys and 1,400 were recorded as being on trolleys during September, the highest number ever recorded in any month since records began. It is an increase on last year, despite the Government spin. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the other Minister of State would stop laughing while I am speaking. There was a 57% increase in trolley numbers for September this year on last year. This is an ongoing crisis. There is a story in the Irish Independenttoday about a woman was left on a trolley for 105 hours. These stories happen every single day of the week.

The Minister does not have the decency to come to the House to answer questions. It is not just that he is missing the debate today; he has missed every debate for which this has been selected as a Topical Issue matter. He has never been here once. He was at a Fine Gael gig when the party was electing its party leader. Obviously, that was more important to him than talking about the hospital in Limerick which is at crisis point. People in Limerick deserve better than what they are getting from the Government. There is no proper intervention.

The Government talks about plans. The Minister of State read out a list of statistics. The statistic is that the hospital in Limerick is at crisis point. People in the hospital are dying unnecessarily. They should not be on trolleys but there are no beds available for them. The Government should be ashamed of itself. The fact that the Minister has not bothered to come to the Chamber is shocking. The Minister of State will read out a script. I will quote from a previous reply in May 2017, when concern was expressed by a nursing union that at least 24 people would be on trolleys from the get go, a concern we shared. He rubbished the union and what I said. At the time he said, "The CEO of the UL hospital has confirmed that there is no basis for any suggestion that 24 patients will be accommodated on trolleys in the new emergency department." We would almost wish the figure was just 24. There were 81 people on trolleys today and on three separate days in recent weeks. In September, 1,400 people were on trolleys.

The Government has not intervened. There are no proper step-down or primary care facilities. General practitioners are not being funded. The Government has spoken about building extensions, but the 60-bed extension will not be in place for at least a year. The winter months will, unfortunately, result in more overcrowding than during the summer months. There are historic numbers of people on trolleys. I know older people who will not go to hospital and families who are stressed. When they get access to hospital the service they get is very good, but the problem is entering the hospital in the first place.

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