The Leas-Cheann Comhairle showed some strong experience there. It was very impressive.

I thank colleagues and, along with them, I acknowledge we are here this evening with this Bill because of Vicky Phelan and others who made a brave and difficult stance, including Lorraine and many others. They did something difficult and important. This is about 115 pages; it is complex and important legislation. It expands HIQA’s remit into nursing homes and private hospitals and brings in mandatory open disclosure, the framework for the patient-requested reviews and the additions provided for through this evening…

Several meaningful pieces of work are going on, such that we can, in the first instance, reduce adverse events as much as possible. That is not just on a one-off basis, to which Deputy Shortall alluded, but it is so we have a culture, training and processes in place such that continuous learning and feedback happen to constantly identify and eliminate the causes of adverse events, while accepting in a health service things will unfortunately inevitably go wrong, hopefully as rarely as possible. Things will not alwa…

I will give the House a quick update. We got the proposed wording from the 221+ group, with which the Department has been engaged extensively. We have sought legal advice. There are legal issues with the wording that was proposed. We are now having an ongoing conversation about wording that will be legally robust and essentially fits the intent. It is, therefore, ongoing. My hope is that we can find wording by tomorrow evening and I propose that we proceed with tomorrow evening. If agreement cannot be found, obviou…

The extrapolation used has been looked at by the Department and it has pointed out that there is a wide variety of views around the world on what the right figures are. Nonetheless, we are all aware that the longer waits in emergency departments come with a patient safety risk attached. It is an ongoing conversation I am having with the Department and I have had that conversation with the Chief Medical Officer as well. Ultimately, the aim is to reduce, insofar as is possible, the pressures through the winter to mak…

I would like to start today by addressing the verbal and physical attacks on healthcare workers that have been reported in recent days. That our staff have to endure such attacks while endeavouring to deliver care is intolerable and completely unacceptable. It is particularly invidious that some of these attacks are racist in nature. A strong message needs to go out from this House that everybody is welcome in Ireland, regardless of race, creed or ethnicity. People who come here from other countries are particularl…

Well said.

The Deputy is making excuses for them.

I congratulate the Deputy on getting in approximately four different constituency matters in the one question. It shows real professionalism.

We will be moving rapidly on the ambulance base. I congratulate the team in Caredoc. They showcased an outstanding service.

There are lessons for us to learn across the board. I acknowledge the case that is being made for additional radiology in the location. When it comes to work visas, it is essential that we be as open as possible to the international healthcare labour market. We are working with the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, and others on bringing GPs in from South Africa. There are opportunities from other parts of the world. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, worked with colleagues on creating 1,000 visas fo…

St. John's Hospital will continue to play a very active role in the delivery of care. When it comes to the surgical hubs, there are several options being looked at, one of which is on a site-by-site basis. For example, the HSE is looking at retrofitting existing commercial space, which was the approach used in Tallaght. I am very interested in the approach the NHS has used. It has modular builds and I believe it has put 140 of these in place across the UK. I can confirm that HSE staff were in England earlier this w…

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has been engaging directly with the group Deputy Healy-Rae mentioned. The Government is aware there have been issues in terms of the rates set under the NTPF-administered scheme and the fact that costs have been rising. This has put enormous pressure on many of the smaller nursing homes in particular which do not have economies of scale available. I can tell Deputy Healy-Rae the Minister of State is engaged and she and the Department are working with the NTPF to see what might …

I can answer with respect to Limerick. It might surprise colleagues to hear the workforce in UHL has increased by 1,000 people since the start of Covid.

The Deputy will be aware this year will be the fourth year of record recruitment into the HSE-----

-----since the foundation of the HSE.

Thus, in spite of the rhetoric around it not being possible to hire-----

-----a single doctor or nurse in this country, this is going to be the fourth year of record recruitment-----

-----and the individual hospital the Deputy is talking about will have 1,000 extra staff now compared with three years ago.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter with me. I will revert to the Department and the HSE immediately on it. The timelines the Deputy is talking about are too long. Patients and their doctors need rapid responses to biopsies. I will look into what capacity constraints there might be at the moment with a view to addressing them.