Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I and many of my Oireachtas colleagues attended a briefing with University Hospital Limerick and the HSE mid-west. It was very enlightening. I welcome the €850,000 that will be invested in the surgical day care unit in Limerick. People will now be able to come to the hospital on the morning of an operation or be assessed outside of the unit and will not take up unnecessary hospital beds overnight. Operations can be carried out on the same day.

I also welcome that the new accident and emergency department, which will be three times the size of the current one, is due to open at the end of May. It will have state-of-the-art equipment. Some of the equipment that is due to be supplied will be the among the best available in hospitals in Ireland. It will be able to communicate and send results, and is very advanced.