Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15
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Maurice Quinlivan (SF), Limerick City

The Minister for Health is present. On Monday, she opened a 96-bed unit in Limerick, which is very welcome, as it has been long awaited. Unfortunately, it will only be able to play a small part in dealing with the crisis we have in University Hospital Limerick, UHL. The ESRI estimates that we need 600 beds in the region. The UHL group itself tells me that 400 beds are required in the region just to stand still, not taking into account the demographics or any growth in population.
The recently released HIQA report had three recommendations. I ask the Government to accept all three of them. The first is extra capacity at UHL. The second is to build an additional site very close to UHL, which would be managed by it. The third one is a model 3 hospital for the mid-west region. We definitely need an answer on the third recommendation. Will the Taoiseach commit to doing that? The mid-west region has been let down since the reconfiguration in 2008-09 when the emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's hospitals were closed. Unfortunately, people in the region have suffered since then.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-15