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

Page 45 of the programme for Government states the Government will "Ensure capacity for a COVID-19 rapid response, including bed and ICU capacity and for non-COVID emergencies into the longer term, by utilising some private hospital capacity, if necessary."

The people have been wonderful during this pandemic, as have the front-line staff. However, in a recent radio interview, the chief executive of University Hospital Limerick stated the hospital had 12 ICU beds, 16 high-dependency beds and 13 people in the ICU. She said staffing requirements meant the hospital could only deal with another three ICU cases. Given the current high demand for ICU beds at University Hospital Limerick, the fact the Taoiseach is a former Minister for Health, as are three of his colleagues in government, and that we are almost two years in to the Covid pandemic, will the Taoiseach outline what steps have been taken to ensure there is additional capacity to increase the number of available ICU beds at the hospital?

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