South Tipperary General Hospital is a progressive, forward-looking and efficient hospital, but it has a major problem with a lack of bed capacity. Simply put, there are not enough beds to cope with the number of admissions. That this is a problem has been accepted by hospital management, the regional HSE management and the South/South West hospital group management.

The figures are shocking. In 2011, there were 750 patients on trolleys in the hospital. In 2016, there was a sixfold increase to 4,419. Today, at the height of the summer, there are 22 patients on trolleys in the hospital's corridors. If that is the case today, what in God's name will it be like in the winter and autumn months?

Of course, we know what it will be like. It will be chaos, as it was last winter, the winter before and the winter before that. The hospital is bursting at its seams. It is operating at 130% of its capacity overall while the medical department is operating at 150% of capacity. Everybody's preferred option for solving this problem in the medium term is a 40-bed inpatient modular, or hotel-type, unit of accommodation.

Numerous Ministers have visited the hospital in recent years. The former Minister, Senator Reilly, the Taoiseach and, in October of last year, the current Minister, Deputy Harris, have visited. When he visited, the Minister for Health said that the situation was utterly unacceptable, that a solution had to be found and that we would have a decision before the end of the year. We are, however, still awaiting that decision.

Will the Taoiseach personally take up this matter and deal with the situation at the hospital? There is absolutely no privacy for patients on trolleys in corridors. The staff of the hospital are under huge pressure. As I said, the hospital is bursting at the seams and approval for this 40-bed unit is awaited. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the provision of such a unit is approved as a matter of urgency? Will he begin the process today?

A look at this morning's trolley figures, which are provided by the HSE, shows that there were 272 patients on trolleys this morning compared to 373 on the same day last year - a reduction of approximately 100. Obviously, I appreciate that if a person is one of the 270 patients who are on trolleys - or a family member of such a patient - that figure is of no benefit because of the enormous distress and inconvenience that being on a trolley causes. I appreciate the very difficult working conditions which our staff in emergency departments have to endure, but a reduction from 373 last year to 272 this year - a reduction of more than 100 year on year - is quite significant.

I have been to South Tipperary General Hospital. It is certainly in need of very significant investment. Like many hospitals in the country there is a new section, which is very much up to standard, and an old part, which is very much not. The Department of Health is conducting a bed capacity review which will establish how many additional beds we may need across our acute hospitals. Building new hospital blocks and new hospital wings takes several years. Even just the planning, tendering and construction could take three to four years before any new blocks could come on train. In addition to that, the Department of Health is working on proposals to provide temporary accommodation in a number of hospitals, the like of which the Deputy has mentioned. It is of course just not good enough to provide temporary accommodation, it must be possible to staff it as well. This time last year, we encountered difficulty in staffing all our beds. That proposal is now being worked up by the Minister for Health and we will see if it is possible to put it in place later this year.

I will make a point on the figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in respect of patients on trolleys in the first half of this year. Those figures were very interesting. They show an overall increase across the country, but huge variations from hospital to hospital. Beaumont Hospital and Connolly Hospital had the lowest number of patients on trolleys since records began and St. Vincent's University Hospital had the second lowest. This is despite two of those three hospitals getting no additional beds whatsoever, whereas some hospitals which got additional beds actually disimproved considerably. That demonstrates to us that providing more staff and more beds on its own does not work. As politicians and as people who make decisions on behalf of the public, we should all acknowledge this. Good clinical leadership is just as important if not more important. We need all of those things because constantly putting more resources, staff and capacity into a system which is not led or managed well will not be enough.

The Taoiseach's reply is absolutely disappointing and unacceptable. As the Taoiseach, the HSE, the management of the hospital and the management of the South/South West hospital group well know, the situation in South Tipperary General Hospital is absolutely atrocious.

Everyone accepts the hospital's lack of bed capacity. This may be the fifth year that various Ministers and Ministers of State gave promised additional beds at the hospital. It is time to bite the bullet. The patients attending South Tipperary General Hospital are entitled to good quality hospital services but they are not getting them.

I understand that a senior medical professional from the South/South West hospital group carried out a forensic analysis of the hospital's bed capacity and has accepted that 35 to 40 additional acute beds are urgently needed at the hospital. I believe the report has gone to the HSE and that senior management of the HSE is now sitting on it, so to speak. Will the Taoiseach ensure the report is acted upon and made public? Approval should be given for beds at South Tipperary General Hospital, not at the Mater Hospital or anywhere else nationally but at South Tipperary General Hospital where there is an agreed and accepted necessity for additional beds.

When there are additional beds, one of the most important things to do is to staff them. We are hiring more staff. Some 700 additional nurses will be hired this year alone, allowing us to open beds that may have been closed temporarily and also to facilitate patients being discharged more quickly, thus allowing beds to be used by more patients and to have faster turnover of beds.

The national bed capacity review is not completed yet and we need to complete it. I do not believe a bed capacity review can be done in isolation. As hospitals have overlapping catchment areas, it needs to be done on a national basis. However, I am told it is very far advanced.

I mentioned earlier that providing new blocks or new hospital wings can take a number of years. For example, a new one has just been opened in Galway, providing 75 more beds. A new emergency department in a new block in Limerick has been opened in recent months. A new emergency department and an acute floor have opened in Kilkenny in recent months. All these things took many years to plan and build. Even if we approved additional hospital blocks now, it would take a number of years to build.

We are not asking for a block. We are asking for temporary accommodation, which is accepted by everyone.

The Taoiseach has exceeded his time.

Temporary accommodation can provide capacity quickly at under pressure hospitals. That is being actively considered by the HSE and the Minister at the moment, but it needs to be worked through.