Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)

The Taoiseach is welcome to the Seanad today. I take this opportunity to acknowledge and welcome the opening this week of the 96-bed block at UHL in Limerick. As the Taoiseach knows, we have come through a dark time in the mid-west, with additional stress and worry being placed on the families of sick loved ones due to the overcrowding we have experienced at UHL. Since the Taoiseach took office in 2020, he has brought a concerted focus on investment and addressing the issues and deficits we have at UHL. We have seen an increase in staffing of more than 1,200 healthcare workers and an increase in the annual operating budget for UHL to nearly €500 million per annum. A surgical hub is under way and almost completed, and will help with elective procedures. With the opening of the 96-bed block this week, we are going to reach more than 250 new acute beds in UHL since 2020 when the Taoiseach took office. I acknowledge that because it is not always recognised.

We need the Taoiseach's concentration and focus on UHL now more than ever as the Minister for Health brings to the Cabinet in the coming weeks her recommendations on where we go next for the future of healthcare in Limerick and the wider mid-west. I urge the Taoiseach to continue his focus and to be ambitious for us in the mid-west.