Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I draw the Taoiseach's attention to the crisis situation in Galway regarding the absence of respite beds and carers. I have an up-to-date position on the numbers. Pre Covid, we had 25 respite beds in the city and country; we now have four. There are four respite beds, post Covid, in the entire city and county. On carers, we now have 278 people on a waiting list who are assessed as needing urgent care. I am drawing this to the Taoiseach's attention, as I have previously. These are the up-to-date figures. Post Covid, we are now worse off than we were before Covid and we were in trouble before that. This is putting an enormous burden on families and the hospital system.

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