Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I take the opportunity to wish the Cathaoirleach well and congratulate him on his election. I look forward to working with him, as he has shown a great capacity to work right across the House in every role he has had.

I, too, want to join with others in congratulating my good friend, Senator Chambers, on her recent engagement. I wish her well in her life ahead. It is difficult to juggle the roles of wife, mother and national politician, which she is, but knowing her capacity, I have no doubt she will do it with great skill and to great success.

Like others in this House, across the Oireachtas and across the political divide, I attended a demonstration in Limerick at the weekend, which was a culmination of the frustration of people across the mid-west for what they have encountered in the delays in accessing the accident and emergency department at Limerick hospital, which is the central emergency facility for the mid-west region. It is very clear to me, and has been for many years, that people have reached a point of frustration with what is not happening at the emergency department in Limerick. Notwithstanding the great effort of doctors, nurses and everybody in there, who are working to the best of their ability, the infrastructure is not there. There was a new accident and emergency unit put in, but the bed capacity is not there. There is a new 95 bed block. There are 200 more beds promised and they need to be delivered without delay. I do not know what methodology can be used to set aside the normal planning process in an emergency situation, but it is an emergency situation and that needs to happen.

In addition, I would agree with others who have said that much greater use has to be made of the hospitals in Ennis and Nenagh, and St. John’s hospital. There is wonderful care delivered there at the moment through the medical assessment units and the minor injuries units. We should have a debate in this House to address the political side of this. Of course, it has to be done with the guidance of medical intervention. Anything that is proposed has to be safe. However, a hospital in Ennis could take at least another 50 beds, process many more patients directly through the medical assessment unit and the minor injuries unit and help to take the burden off the acute hospital in Limerick.