Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the appointment of Kieran Mulvey to help in resolving the dispute in the Doolin Coast Guard unit. As my colleagues will be aware, that unit was stood down two weeks ago, primarily due to HR issues and the resignation of several members. Now that Kieran Mulvey has been appointed, I call on all parties to engage meaningfully with him with the objective of getting the Doolin Coast Guard unit back up and running to allow it to continue doing the vital work it has been doing for many years off the coast of Clare.

I am also deeply concerned about the situation in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, where 95 people are on trolleys. As was said earlier, this has been going on for years. The last Government responded to the situation by investing more than €25 million in a 60-bed modular unit, which was supposed to reduce the number of people on trolleys in the hospital. That unit is now up and running and fully commissioned, yet we are in a situation where we have 95 people on trolleys in the hospital in Limerick. Something is wrong somewhere.

I have called before for some independent mediator or reviewer, or somebody, to go into the hospital to find out where the stoppages are. Is it a case of people just not being discharged quickly enough, or where is the problem? I ask that because it seems to be worse in Limerick than anywhere else in the country. Therefore, I request that the Minister for health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, come in to debate the specific issue of the accident and emergency department in UHL. I would like him to come in even for just one hour some day, and to make a statement and take questions from the Senators based in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. Those are the areas where people are affected by this issue in the hospital and Senators from the region are receiving phone calls daily from people on trolleys and who are suffering greatly. It is not good enough and it is not acceptable. Accident and emergency departments around the country face challenges, but the problem has been constant in Limerick and it has been going on for years.