Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The hardworking staff at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, all of whom have the best interests of the people of Kerry at heart, have been contacting me because they are frustrated with the situation there. It is at breaking point. The average waiting time in the accident and emergency department is now ten hours, which is the second highest in the country. One woman told me that she was waiting with her son for 19 hours before he was finally put on a drip. Some 390 people were waiting on trolleys in January, which was a 10% increase on last year's figure. That is a bad start to the year.

Year after year for the past five years, elective surgeries have been cancelled. They have been cancelled in University Hospital Kerry since 19 December 2024, which was a full two months ago.

See this speech in context