Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, and I too welcome the Minister to the House.

Listening to the contributions here today, he would probably need to be a magician in order to keep everybody happy. It is probably a unique ministry in the sense that it has such a big budget and there is such a varied level of responsibility from health prevention to dealing with crisis management, not just on a daily basis but on an hourly basis. I do not think anyone can envy the Minister for the task ahead of him. All we can do is wish him well and express how impressed we are with him in his initial few months as Minister for Health. The Minister's straight-talking nature has certainly given the public confidence that the health portfolio is in competent hands. That is to his credit, particularly during a period that is very difficult for the Government.

We are all going to talk about our own areas, to a large extent. The Minister has attend the House previously to deal with a Private Members' motion on the issue of a strategy for vision. It was a useful and worthwhile engagement. I would like to think that we are going to see a strategy for vision properly developed, with the Department as the core participant and the people who are going to construct it. Everybody has a right to retain their eyesight. If that can be achieved by a comprehensive strategy for vision encompassing all the stakeholders it would be a very worthwhile endeavour. We have spoken at length on that in the House before.

Today I wish to raise the conditions in the accident and emergency unit in University Hospital Limerick and how unacceptable they are. The Minister gets a bulletin on the number of people waiting on trollies three times a day. I know that he is on top of this issue. However, I invite the Minister to visit the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle in Limerick unannounced some time. It is one thing to get figures printed on paper or on an iPad and it is important that the Minister does so. I know he takes them very seriously. However, it is another thing to see the consequences, in action, on a Saturday night when it is at its peak, and to see the heroic efforts that staff make to try to ensure that everybody is seen and the appalling conditions in which they are working. Seeing is believing. It would be a very useful exercise for the Minister to call unannounced as Minister for Health, the person ultimately responsible at political level for the delivery of health services in this country. It is something the Minister should do, and he should do it sooner rather than later.

I believe that the accident and emergency department in Dooradoyle is probably the worst in the country. There is a capital investment taking place and there will be a new accident and emergency unit, probably in 2016. That is very welcome and every effort is being made to accelerate it to ensure there is no undue delay and that it will be fast-tracked as much as humanly possible. That is acceptable. However, there are interim measures that can be taken. We need to think outside the box in terms of identifying ways of doing things in the meantime - for the next two years - for the thousands of patients who are going to need to use the service over the next two years. When I speak of thinking outside the box, I speak of looking at the possibility of extending the opening hours of the accident and emergency unit in Ennis Hospital to alleviate some of the pressure. Reconfiguration, we were told, is a good thing. Unfortunately, the capital infrastructure should have been there before reconfiguration became a reality.

It was not and the Minister must take a fresh look at both extending the opening hours and upgrading the service at Ennis Hospital's accident and emergency unit between now and the coming on`stream of the new building in Limerick.