Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will start by thanking the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for coming to the Dromcollogher respite centre in County Limerick and taking the time to speak to the management, staff and volunteers who make the centre such a brilliant place. Some 51 people contributed to this debate last week. It was one of the most heartbreaking debates we have seen.

It was very sad to see the defeat on so many politicians as they made their contributions on yet another HSE inadequacy. Will we see more of this behaviour and practice by professionals? Where are the safeguards and the governance for the practices? Where does the buck stop? The indignity suffered by the young adolescents must be the last.

The Taoiseach said that it was not a staffing issue during the debate last week. In any sector one works, including mental health or hospital sectors, management is responsible for the care given out. Management is responsible for staff morale and the due care of people under its control. I have asked for help from the Minister and Ministers of State on more than one occasion to help me sort out the problems that management has not addressed in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, pre-Covid, during Covid and since Covid has been dropped.

The management is not able to control the consultants. People take up beds in the hospital for four or five days while waiting for a scan. We see the stuff being done on a day-care basis in the private hospital system in which people are in and out in one day. The problem is the consultants do not meet the patients for four or five days and hold up the valuable beds for people who are sick, but it comes back to management. Management has no control. I ask the Minister of State to help me sort out UHL.

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