Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In 2009, 24-hour accident and emergency departments were closed in Ennis and Nenagh. At the time it was said this would lead to centres of excellence. Fourteen years on, that simply has never been the case, and it is a falsehood for some to say that it led to any centre of excellence. It was quite the opposite. The problem has been funding, with so many people through one 24-hour accident and emergency system. We saw on Monday that the number of patients on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, again reached 130. We are now at record levels in UHL. The answer to this is to reopen an additional 24-hour accident and emergency department in the region. We have good medical assessment units and local injury units, but the analysis about opening another 24-hour accident and emergency department was done about four or five years ago. May I ask just one simple question? Will the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health look for a new analysis, if the mid-west can sustain it and if it can be funded and opened, of an additional 24-hour accident and emergency department to ease all this incessant pressure?

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