Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, Senators Maria Byrne and Conway, for bringing forward this motion.

As the Minister knows, this matter is the biggest issue in the region of counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. It has been the biggest issue for the last couple of months. I listened to what was said by Senator Boyhan. He was very critical of previous Governments so he must have forgotten that he was a member of a political party where the leader of that party was the Minister for Health in a Government the Senator has criticised.

We, as a Government, have massively invested in health over the last number of years. There has been no shortage of investment in health by this Government or previous Governments involving Fine Gael. We have seen success in the health service and other parts of the health service in other areas of the country. Trolley numbers have been an ongoing issue in UHL and we hear about it every winter. The Minister has put forward a winter plan and plans are in place for when there is a surge but it always seems to be the case that Limerick has the highest trolley numbers.While we have invested in hospitals - we have had big investment in Nenagh and a 40-bed modular unit built in my town, Clonmel - the part the people cannot understand is how a 40-bed modular unit can be built in Clonmel and the trolley numbers there come down after it has been built whereas 60 beds are provided in UHL and the trolley numbers there are still going up. The people I speak to in Tipperary, Limerick and Clare cannot understand that. That is not the Minister's fault or the Government's fault. We are putting in more beds and in one hospital it is working and in another it is not. We need to be honest about why it is working in one place and not in the other. It is as simple as that. It is not complicated. These are not simplistic and populist lines that it is completely the Minister's fault and so on. It works in my home town, Clonmel, but it is not working in the whole of the Limerick region.

Management needs to step up in that regard. I thank the Minister for the meeting we had. A couple of weeks ago we had a meeting to which he invited all public representatives and Oireachtas Members from all parties, and the Taoiseach came in on it, to have an open, frank discussion. The Minister was there with the management staff from UHL. It was a long meeting and was very frank, and it needed to be. The Minister will know that I brought up in my contribution the fact that HIQA did a report on UHL a year and a half ago and it was very critical of the management of UHL. I got a response two weeks ago from the CEO of UHL to questions I asked. I asked her what her view was on the HIQA report, if she had made any changes on the back of the report and what she had done about the criticism of the management within UHL. Her response was that the inspectors came on a bad day. That is utterly unacceptable as a response. What sort of confidence does it give the people in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary when the head of the hospital says the reason a critical report was done was just that the inspectors came on a bad day? It is just not acceptable. Other people can stand up here and say it is the Government's fault, the Cabinet's fault or the Minister's fault. There is a management issue if people cannot answer a simple question about a report that was done a year and a half ago. They have not prepared even a genuine bluff answer; it was just that they came on a bad day.

This is a massive issue for us in the region. That is why this motion has been tabled. People need the confidence they can go to a hospital and get the care they deserve. People in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary have made decisions not to go to a hospital simply because they believe it is in their best interests for their health not to go to a hospital. That is a crazy situation to be in.

I will make one last point. It seems the opening of Ennis Hospital to the ambulance service carrying out triage and sending patients to Ennis Hospital rather than University Limerick Hospital has been quite successful. The Minister might be able to answer this in his contribution. I know they are assessing that and will make a decision on the back of that, but Nenagh hospital needs to be opened up for that too. I believe that would relieve some of the pressure, certainly for that area of north Tipperary.

I thank my colleagues for tabling the motion and thank the Minister.