Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I want to raise the issue of the emergency department in UHL. It is shocking that this situation is continuing. I do not blame anybody for it yet everybody can be blamed for it. Something really does need to be done. It is a crisis. It is embarrassing. It is not good for our society and it is certainly not good for the sick people in the mid-west. A debate here on the issue of the emergency department in UHL, with the senior Minister, Deputy Donnelly, in here, is something the people of counties Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary and other surrounding counties deserve. I suggest that should happen.

I would also like to articulate the concerns of parents of children with scoliosis. It is heartbreaking to see children suffering, children in pain, parents forced to put up videos on social media of their children in pain. What kind of a society allows this situation to happen? If it means buying the services abroad, it has to happen. We cannot allow a situation where these children are continuing to suffer day in, day out, week in, week out, months and into years. As a country we are better than that and we should act better than that and resolve this problem for once and for all.