We all know Brexit is on the horizon. We do not know the scale of what we are facing yet but that is no reason we should take our eyes off domestic issues. Healthcare and health services is the biggest issue we are facing into as winter is coming. Already, 6,386 people have been on trolleys and it is just September, with 531 people on trolleys right now in overcrowded hospital corridors. As the Taoiseach knows, I represent Tipperary and two of the hospitals serving the county, South Tipperary General Hospital and the hospital for the mid-west, University Hospital Limerick, are often - or nearly always - the most overcrowded in the State despite the best efforts of all the staff and management.

The Government seems to be no closer to getting to grips with health spending either. The Minister, Deputy Harris, who is not present, has also been deliberately avoiding scrutiny in recent months. He had the de Buitléir report last February but chose to release it over the summer in order, obviously, to bury it. Likewise, the HSE capital spending plan was buried by releasing it towards the end of the summer, nine months after the plan was in operation. Maybe the Government thought that these reports would go unnoticed. I believe it was cowardly behaviour by the Government, the Minister and the Department.

The Government claim that the HSE capital plan is not affected by the cost of the national children's hospital is incredible - it is all just profiling. The first test of this will be if projects are going to be delivered on time. I can tell the Taoiseach that, from speaking to numerous HSE officials, they are actually laughing at this plan. There is no hope of the commitments and the milestones being met. Second, there are glaring omissions in this plan. There is little mention of the very good national maternity strategy, which we collectively all support.

To refer back to the most overcrowded hospital, University Hospital Limerick, where is the 96-bed unit that was promised and that is absolutely necessary, as the Minister saw with his own eyes over the summer? This hospital suffers the worst overcrowding in the whole country. Figures from the Department of Health show that no other hospital spends as much on agency staff - €9 million in the first seven months. The staff there are so stressed and the staff in related hospitals in Nenagh, Ennis and St. John's likewise. There is a serious lack of staff. They are also clearly very upset across the country at the de facto recruitment ban that is in place for front-line staff, as well as other staff. We always hear from the HSE and the Minister that this is not a recruitment ban but it is, in effect, a recruitment ban. I can read out lists of people who cannot get jobs in the HSE and others who, despite actually being recruited, cannot commence because of this de facto recruitment ban. What does this say to the staff across the country and to all the patients who need their help?

I ask the Taoiseach the following questions. When will this de facto recruitment ban, which is affecting front-line staff and other critical staff across the HSE, in acute services in particular, be lifted and dealt with? Second, when will he commit to dealing with the outstanding and incredible issues that have been left in the mid-west, particularly at University Hospital Limerick, where there has not been a commitment in the capital plan to the much-needed 96-bed unit?

I thank the Deputy. To go back to his earlier comments, I do not think there is any Minister in the Government who is subject to more scrutiny than Deputy Harris, whether it is in the media, taking questions in this Chamber or appearing before the committee, so I do not accept that at all. I also do not agree with the Deputy's assertion that publishing a document during the summer recess is somehow an attempt to bury it. A lot of us work during the summer recess, not just the Government but also members of the Opposition.

The Minister was not. The poor author was left in a lonely room.

When it came to the HSE capital plan, which runs for three years starting this year, I was there myself and so was the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. I guarantee the Deputy that when we try to hide something, we do not send the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance alongside the Minister for Health.

It is nine months later.

It is not just for this year; it is for three years. What that HSE capital plan contains is the 250 projects that will go ahead over the next three years and it answers that bogus claim that the overrun on the children's hospital has somehow caused all other projects to be stopped or delayed. Yes, it does have an impact, it does require some projects to be reprofiled, but we have set out in black and white exactly what the 250 projects going ahead are.

It is important as well that people understand the impact it has. The national children's hospital this year will take up about 1.3% of the budget and 0.4% of public spending in total. Listening to the commentary around it, people would be forgiven for thinking that 10% or 20% of all taxpayers' money this year is being spent on a single project. That is not the case. Some 0.4% of Government spending this year is on that project and 1.27% of the HSE budget is going on that project, which leaves 98% for everything else, including the 250 projects that are in that plan.

The Deputy referenced in particular to the maternity strategy. That is in the plan. The tendering of Holles Street to move to St. Vincent's is there in the plan, and the funding required to begin work on the transfer of St. Munchin's to Dooradoyle in County Limerick, of the Coombe to the St. James's site and of the Rotunda to Connolly is provided for in the plan.

There were two reports. They were buried and everyone knows what happened. One was nine months late and the other has sat in a lonely room since February. The Department did not even have the class to change the date on the cover of the report.

In regard to the de Buitléir report, does the Government intend to implement the recommendations of the report to remove private medicine from public hospitals? Will it honour what Sláintecare said? I was part of the team that reported on that. Will the Taoiseach commit to that here and now? With regard to the capital plan, will the Taoiseach give a commitment to the people of the mid-west that the 96-bed unit that is required in the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland will be delivered? Otherwise, will he commit in the interim that there will be some change in the pathways in regard to how the emergency theatre operates in that area? We are in a crisis and we cannot continue. There will have to be different pathways in regard to Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's. Will the Taoiseach tell us today, on this date in September, considering we have had a nine-month delay with two reports, when the winter plan will be published for the forthcoming winter season?

The winter plan will be published before the winter.

As for wishing to bury a document, here are the facts: four Ministers, including the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health, went out to Dún Laoghaire-----

Are there any good ones?

-----and to the wonderful new national rehab hospital that is now almost completed and that will replace the Victorian facilities there.

Is there any sign of the children's hospital?

I absolutely guarantee the Deputy that we were disappointed the visit did not get more coverage than it did.

I do not take half a day out with four Ministers when I want to bury something. I absolutely guarantee the Deputy that.

May we have order for the Taoiseach?

We were disappointed it did not get more coverage. Why did it not get more coverage? Because it is good news. These are the 250 healthcare capital projects that are going ahead-----

Shocking.

-----over the course of the next three years.

The Opposition does not like good news.

Sack the press officer.

To respond to Deputy Kelly's other questions, the Government accepts the de Buitléir report. It is Government policy to remove private practice from public hospitals but, having read the report, everyone will understand the difficulties and costs associated with its delivery. It will cost €600 million a year, or €6 billion over ten years, three times the cost of the children's hospital. It is already the case that private practice in public hospitals is going down. It is now down to about 15%. Having read the report, the Deputy will understand the complications in delivering this, how much it will cost and how many years it will take to do it.

I asked about the 96-bed unit.

Finally, Limerick has a new emergency department and the new Leben wing, both delivered by this Government and open and operating, and a new ward block under construction which will be opened and will operate certainly in the next six months. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the 96-bed block, but so much investment has gone into that hospital to date I know he will want to complement us on that.

The Taoiseach should visit it.