Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. When we talk about health in Kerry, we know people suffer immensely when trying to get into University Hospital Kerry. There are waiting times and people are waiting on trolleys. Ambulances are arriving and the staff cannot take in the patients from the ambulance. That is not acceptable. The ambulances are held up, the patients are held up and the whole thing is a disaster. We have to go back 12 or 14 years when there were wards closed in Tralee hospital, which have never been reopened. We have to start there. Health is a priority in Kerry and it needs to be treated as such.

Never before have so many people died in Kerry than in the past six weeks. We do not know what it is. People of all ages have died, including our lovely, talented Saoirse Buckley, who was 16 years of age, and her neighbour, 97-year-old Nellie Lovett. Today, I learned that Hannah O'Shea, who was 107 years old, has died. So many people of different ages, and those in between, have died.

I was glad to give a 98-year-old lady the opportunity to go up to the North on Wednesday morning at a quarter to four. She is 98 years old and she walked up into the bus, determined as anyone of 50 years of age.

She walked up without a stick, a crutch or anyone assisting her but she had to travel for eight or nine hours up to the North of Ireland to get her sight back. I am proud to have been part of arranging that service with Deputy Collins back in 2017. We have taken 110 buses up so far. However, it is very hard on those people of great ages to travel that distance-----

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