Perhaps Deputy Grealish will lead the way. He has three minutes.

I will try, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I have timed my speech and it is slightly more than three minutes. There has been a great deal of discussion inside and outside this House about the urgent need for the accident and emergency departments in our hospitals to be improved. Hundreds of patients are having to spend nights on trolleys in unacceptable conditions. I would like to highlight the particular problems at University Hospital Galway, which is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. I ask the Government to implement a solution that could be introduced in the short term to resolve the problems at the hospital, at least in part. The accident and emergency department at the hospital is one of the two busiest in the country, with well over 60,000 people attending it every year. Management and staff are doing their best to cope with working conditions that are impossible at times. Patients are being shoehorned into every nook and cranny as they await treatment. Those who have to be examined in corridors without privacy are stripped of their dignity.

I do not need to remind the Taoiseach of the words he used in this House this time last year after a visit to University Hospital Galway. He said that "the emergency department at University College Galway is not fit for purpose" and described it as "one of the most inadequate facilities in the country". Every day of the week, this department is desperately trying to cope with patient numbers that are two or two and a half times in excess of the numbers for which it was built to cater. The logjam in the accident and emergency department is having a knock-on effect on other aspects of the hospital's operations. Planned surgeries for almost 5,000 patients at University Hospital Galway were cancelled in the first nine months of this year. This has been blamed in part on overcrowding in the accident and emergency department, which has been causing elective surgeries to be postponed. There are plans in the pipeline for the construction of a new accident and emergency unit. The rate of progress in this regard makes me fear that another 500,000 people or more will have to endure the trauma of the current facility before the new unit actually opens.

There is another option that would considerably ease the pressure on the current accident and emergency department. Its attraction is that it could be implemented in a relatively short period of time and at a relatively low cost. A minor injuries unit at Merlin Park University Hospital could handle a large proportion of the people who currently present at the accident and emergency unit at University Hospital Galway. A similar service is operating at 11 locations around the country. The unit at Roscommon County Hospital is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and handles cases like cuts, bruises, burns, sprains, broken legs and broken arms. Just one in four of those who attend the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway end up being admitted to the hospital. This suggests that a huge number of people could be treated at a minor injuries unit at Merlin Park University Hospital. Will the Taoiseach agree to provide such a unit as a matter of urgency, before another generation of people from Galway and adjoining counties endures the limitations of a facility that does not belong in modern Ireland? Will he confirm a report in last week's Connacht Tribune, which quoted Government sources as saying that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, "will announce the go-ahead for a new Emergency Department" when he visits the hospital in December? If this report is accurate, how long will it be before the new accident and emergency department is open?

Deputy Grealish is perfectly entitled to raise this issue, which has been raised by a number of Deputies in recent times. The fact of the matter is that the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway is too small and, as a result, the foyer leading into it is consistently jammed with people. As the Deputy has rightly pointed out, just one in four of those who go through the foyer into the accident and emergency unit actually end up going into the hospital for treatment. Even though this is a central issue, few others have had the accuracy to refer to it. As Deputy Grealish knows, this unit was originally designed in the 1950s and was upgraded in the late 1960s. It caters for 1 million people in the greater region. There is a need to look at what the situation should be in five, ten or 15 years' time for the greater spectrum of care for patients in the university hospitals. As the Deputy has pointed out, the university hospitals in Galway are University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.

I understand that the Minister for Health intends to visit the hospital in December, as Deputy Grealish mentioned. Following my own visit last year, a commitment to have a new accident and emergency department provided for University Hospital Galway was included in the programme for Government. The Saolta group, which deals with these matters, as the Deputy is aware, has advised that a cost-benefit analysis of the new accident and emergency department project has been submitted to the HSE national estates directorate. It has been considered and was accepted on 15 November last. We will now move on to deal with the provision of funding for the project in the review of the capital programme, which is to be carried out in 2017.

There is a consultant-led service at University Hospital Galway that opens from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and that takes all medical patients to the emergency department following triage of their particular conditions. There is access to key facilities such as diagnostics in order to facilitate rapid decision-making and so on. The service sees approximately 30 patients a day. In the course of examining the operational flow through the emergency department in 2005 and 2006, an internal reconfiguration was put in place to create a minor injuries area that would take away many of those who are in the system waiting to be admitted and who may, in fact, not need to be admitted. This is, as the Deputy points out, also the case at Roscommon County Hospital, which is now busier than ever. All non-core clinical accommodation was moved out of the department to create additional capacity. The emergency department now accommodates 62,000 attendances annually. Despite recent improvements in that patient flow - achieved by keeping the acute medical assessment unit, AMAU, free of boarded patients during periods of peak attendance at the emergency department - the Saolta Group advises that University Hospital Galway is extremely challenged. A 75-bed unit is being completed, as the Deputy knows.

Go raibh maith agat.

When the Minister visits, as the designs that have been completed have been accepted, it is now a case of putting it in for financial backing so the next generation will not have to go through what has happened here. Finally, I would say-----

The Taoiseach will have another opportunity.

We need to look at the possibilities for Merlin Park for the next period and perhaps to move out some of the services currently located at University Hospital Galway and allow it to achieve the excellence in cancer it is looking towards.

I have to be fair to the House. I call Deputy Grealish.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response but I would like him to give a firmer commitment on when the new emergency department will be built and opened at University Hospital Galway. This has been going on for the past number of years but no member of Government or Minister has given a commitment on when it will actually happen.

I welcome the Taoiseach's comments on the minor injuries unit at Merlin Park. This is a major issue and such a unit would solve much of the overcrowding at University Hospital Galway. As well as bringing down the number of people at the emergency department in University Hospital Galway and reducing the worrying risk to patients from the current overcrowding, it would greatly reduce the length of time people must wait to be seen and treated. Current waiting times at the hospital are unacceptable. In the first seven months of this year, only 58% of the people attending the emergency department were dealt with in the first six hours and a quarter of the total were still waiting after nine hours. Both figures are well below the national average, and that is not to mention the 2,000 plus who were waiting 24 hours or more. Perhaps the most shameful statistic, from figures provided by the HSE, is that 50% of patients aged 75 and over in Galway were waiting more than nine hours to be either discharged or admitted, which is more than 3,300 of the most vulnerable members of our society.

Go raibh maith agat.

I will finish on this point. Patients turning up at the minor injuries unit in Roscommon, and this shows how successful Roscommon is-----

Sorry, Deputy. I have to be fair to the House. Members are taking too much advantage of my generosity.

-----wait an average of one hour in the unit and are seen and out within two hours. That is the success of a minor injuries unit. I hope the Taoiseach will consider one for Merlin Park.

The Minister opened an endoscopy unit at Roscommon County Hospital that is doing brilliant work. We have moved quite a long way in respect of this emergency department. It was contained in the programme for Government and was given priority. The design has been completed and has been accepted by HSE Estates. It is now a question of being able to provide for that within the adjustment of the capital programme for 2017. I would also make the point that, as the Deputy knows, a 75-bed unit has just been completed and will be commissioned and equipped by the end of this year, hopefully. That will free up a number of other wards that can be closed for refurbishment in order to help this situation.

The staffing numbers have increased somewhat in the emergency department. There are 54 whole-time equivalents there, including newly appointed clinical nurse managers who do an absolutely first-class job.

Go raibh maith agat.

This is not the way we would like it to be but I think we are in a clearer position than before.

I cannot give a date but it will continue to be an absolute priority having moved through to acceptance of the design by the HSE, moving to the review for capital programme and with the other areas that will make it better for everybody.