Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments of Senator Black about Palestine. Abandoning our Palestinian friends in their hour of need represents the very worst form of betrayal.

This morning I want to raise University Hospital Limerick. There are 43 patients on trolleys there this morning. If one looks at the records over the last number of weeks, one will see that University Hospital Limerick is consistently top of the list by some distance. The next nearest this morning was Sligo University Hospital with 18 people on trolleys. I have been in contact with a number of staff there who have told me there are people sitting and sleeping on chairs. There are no bedside tables, which means patients cannot even be given a cup of tea. The message from staff is "if this is what it is like in July, what on earth are we facing into this winter?". There are beds finally coming on stream, but this is where it gets really disturbing because the staff are naturally concerned to ensure the hospital is properly staffed for this winter season. However, they have found that management will not speak to them. They have referred matters to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, but the management of University Hospital Limerick has refused to meet the WRC. Let us think for a minute about what we have been quite rightly hearing this morning about the heroism of our front-line workers - how they save lives and put their own lives on the line.They are doing it in University Hospital Limerick and their own management will not speak to them or even engage with the industrial relations machinery of the State at the Workplace Relations Commission. I ask for an urgent debate on this issue, as well as urgent Government intervention. We have suffered enough in UHL. The staff and patients have suffered enough and we need change.