Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is Cork University Hospital.

It happens time and again. The paramedics are sitting around with acute-care patients sitting in the ambulances waiting to be handed over. It is a pure systems failure. Meanwhile people are in dire need waiting for an ambulance to come to them. That is a systems failure that needs to be rectified. It does not require money; it just requires improved systems.

I know the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, is working on issues relating to Stormont today. Of course, the issue of the Border has come up again. The UK Cabinet, which we know is split, seems to be rowing back on the agreement on the Border it signed up to in December. The British do not want to be in the customs union; they want to have their cake and eat it. It now appears that the Irish Government will have to fight again.

The legislation that is supposed to come from Europe to put into legal effect the agreement signed up to by the UK in December which will clarify what is meant by having by no divergence is supremely critical to the Border. I have explained, as many others have, that many Westminster MPs and Members of the House Lords have come over here and asked us for our ideas; they simply do not have any because they do not know where they want to get to in this Brexit journey. Without knowing where they want to get to, they will find it very difficult to get there.

Whatever agreement and legal text on what happens with the Border comes out of Europe in March is absolutely critical because that is the framework for the remainder of the negotiations between the EU and the UK. The British were asleep at the wheel because they thought there would be a fudge allowing them to rumble on and solve it later. However, there are Border issues on how trade will be conducted and what will be in or out of any agreement between the North and the South. The DUP's insistence that there be no divergence between Northern Ireland and Britain would mean that there would be no divergence between Ireland and the UK which means in essence there would be no divergence between the UK and the EU. At that point one has to ask what the purpose of Brexit is if it is for no divergence on all the issues and the UK has to sign up for all the issues and the customs union.

Time and again it startles me when I meet Members of Parliament from Westminster who do not even know the basics. To see the British Cabinet meet for two days over what its position is on Brexit is nothing short of startling.

I want the Minister for Health to come to the House to discuss the capital plan and the allegations. We all know that allegations are made by the media and others all the time. We want clarity on issues raised yesterday in the newspapers about interference.