While trolley numbers have improved enormously in Beaumont Hospital, that needs to be improved and it is the next job for Beaumont Hospital.

I thank the Deputies for that. This is the issue with Beaumont. It is an exceptional centre of clinical excellence. It is the place you want to be for neurology and it is a place that provides extraordinary renal treatment, but we have to look at the hospital as a whole. While it does extraordinary surgery and neurosurgery, when somebody like Mrs. Anderson's husband presents, he needs the care, the throughput and acute medical care as well. That requires a concentration of the emergency department on the patient ex…

To clarify, the Northside Home Care Services are funded through a separate tender arrangement. It is different; it is not HSE and section 39. The organisation is in receipt of small grant funding under section 39 in respect of meals on wheels but that is different. The HSE reached out to the Northside Home Care Services last week to remind them of the process for claiming an uplift in pay funding in respect of section 39 which it receives in respect of meals on wheels. However, beyond that, it is not a public secto…

I assure the Deputy that much progress has been made on the path to providing the necessary oversight and regulation of assisted human reproduction. The Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act was signed into law by the President in July 2024. Some administrative sections of the Act have been commenced, specifically to establish the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority, or AHRRA. In addition, work is under way to commence section 232 of the Act. This will result in the parentage of some donor-conceived…

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I also thank him for acknowledging the different management that is there now, Sandra Broderick and Ian Carter, who represent a different management culture from that which has gone before. I also recognise the considerable work that Bernard Gloster has done in taking disciplinary proceedings of the kind we have never seen in the health system in respect of some of the senior management in Limerick who predate Mr. Carter and Ms Broderick. Those proceedings continue and are at di…

I thank Deputy Carrigy for raising this important issue in relation to Longford. I cannot speak about the individual position because I have only just become aware of it but I will find out for the Deputy. More broadly, it is not acceptable to have vacant positions. We have vacancies in the health service and we need them to be filled. We need that for the supports that children in particular need. However, I would point to the fact that I asked the CEO of the HSE to put specific measures in place to address OT, sp…

I thank the Deputy for the important question. I recognise that it is a very different Department in respect of statutory leave but I do want to say how we are looking towards a new maternity strategy and how we are trying to recognise all stages of pregnancy and the impact on women of the different adverse pregnancy outcomes that can happen. I will speak with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, more broadly about what the Deputy has specifically raised.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I would be obliged if she might share the details with me so that I can follow up directly to see what the specific circumstances are in the Mater, and specifically whether it relates to a particular condition or to broad access to the pain management clinic. If I could follow up with the Deputy directly, I will see what is going on.

The Deputy is right to highlight the opportunity Mallow presents and has presented for some time to HSE south west to provide step-down facilities and other healthcare facilities, particularly to help with the discharge from Mercy and Cork University Hospital. There have been beds there that have been available. I am having a full seminar with HSE south west on 5 February, when I will go through all of that in detail, including making sure all the beds funded are opened on time and in a timely way, as well as makin…

This is disgraceful.

Give the gardaí some respect.

You are politicising gardaí.

I do understand.

We did discuss the report in November. I knew then the approach I would be taking. I am very pleased to have spoken to the Cabinet about that first, as was appropriate, and to have secured its support for the approach I want to take, which is to implement all three options in the HIQA report and to meet the need for additional acute bed capacity and healthcare capacity more broadly across the mid-west. As Senator Ryan said, we are progressing with options A, B and C. Option A is the delivery of acute beds at the si…

It is clear to see how much University Hospital Limerick has improved over the past year. I am so disappointed to hear this constant doing down of UHL, as its performance, particularly since the 96-bed block opened, has been quite extraordinary. We look at the HSE figures every day. This morning, there were 248 people on trolleys. Our threshold for what is tolerable is 280, so it is like a good summer's day today and we are right in the middle of flu. According to the HSE figures, which are what we track throughout…

I was not in the Seanad.

Believing.

We are not opposing the motion and we are grateful for the opportunity to clarify what has been a very confused and inaccurate set of comments over the recent period. It is really important that we take the opportunity because a lot of people have been very frightened by this debate. I note from the comments that have been made in the first 20 minutes of the debate that not one of the Deputies referenced the many constituents who have been paying for blister packs for some time. I know they have that information be…

Did the Deputy not hear what I said?

No, it was not.