Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the intervention, at long last, from the Minister for Health on University Hospital Limerick. I welcome the fact that he met senior officials in the HSE yesterday and that he has put together a crisis management unit that is to go to the hospital and work with senior people in the HSE and in the hospital. There also needs to be some independent people brought into this because it needs an independent eye. This is going on for far too long. I sound like a broken record and I am sure the Leader is sick of listening to me harping on about it but it is at crisis point. An extra 200 beds are needed and procedures are being cancelled and all these issues need to be addressed to make it a safe place, not only for the staff but for the patients in Limerick and in the mid-west.

I also support the call for the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to come in. I recently hosted a meeting on childcare and many of the issues that are being highlighted by the childcare providers. I met some of the childcare providers from Limerick outside the gate yesterday. I recently hosted a meeting on childcare and many of the same issues kept coming up with some of the childcare providers and parents who attended my meeting.There is a disparity really it terms of provision of funding towards some units. It depends on how many children there are. While I know the Minister has done a lot, I believe he needs to come into the House in order that we can have a proper debate on the matter