Hospital Overcrowding Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12 ============================================================ Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter and the concerns raised by the UHL medical board. Like the Deputy, I am local TD in Limerick and I am fully aware of the concerns raised. The Government is fully committed to driving significant improvements to the health service at UHL and across the mid-west. As the Deputy stated, UHL is one of the busiest emergency departments in Ireland. Increasing levels of activity in 2026 have attendance up 11% in January to March compared to the same period in 2025. Despite these attendances and a related rise in waiting times, we have seen some improvement in compliance but there are too many instances of prolonged patient waiting times. There are too many people on trolleys. I accept that. It is a capacity issue, as the HIQA report stated. The Minister for Health and the Government are focused on increasing bed capacity. Staff numbers in UHL have grown by 50% since December 2019. As I stated, the Minister of Health has been advised by the HSE that recruitment of clinical front-line staff at UHL and throughout the region can continue as normal. That is an important point to make people aware of. More than 53,000 patients attended the three mid-west injury clinics - St. John's, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals - during 2025. Those clinics do great work. The acute virtual ward went live in UHL in July 2024. This has been scaled up to now provide 40 virtual beds, assisting in freeing up hospital capacity. The surgical hub is expected to be in operation by the end of the year, as the Deputy referenced. This will increase theatre capacity and reduce day cases and the low-complexity surgical waiting list in the region. It will make an enormous difference. The purchase of the 44-acre site at Raheen represents a significant milestone and provides an opportunity to plan for delivery of healthcare in Limerick and the region for current and future generations. Obviously, the Minister is committed to advancing the establishment of the project board before the summer recess. That project board will look at all aspects, including capacity and everything else that is required in the region. It will look at all aspects when it comes to options B and C. Option B is to look at additional capacity and the expansion of the UHL campus to include an additional adjacent site. Option C is to develop a model 3 hospital in the mid-west to provide a second emergency department. I concur with the Deputy that it is very difficult for patients coming to UHL with the waiting times and trolleys. I join with him in expressing gratitude to the staff in UHL and the entire region for the fantastic work they do. The Government and the Minister for Health are absolutely committed to ensure that we continue to provide further investment in required staff to meet capacity requirements for UHL, Limerick and the entire mid-west region in delivering health services. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-12