Yesterday, I raised with the Taoiseach the chronic overcrowding in our hospitals. I echoed the concerns of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, which has told us that this crisis is putting patient care at risk and has described the situation as being beyond unsustainable. Today, we woke to the news that University Hospital Limerick has 82 patients without beds, the highest figure ever recorded in any hospital. In September, over 1,400 patients in Limerick were without beds. Today, it breaks the record for the number of people on trolleys. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said it was not simply a matter of beds. The issue in Limerick today is a simple matter of capacity and beds. Yesterday, the Taoiseach, quite correctly apologised. The reality is, however, that an apology is not enough. What is his plan for University Hospital Limerick? It is a disgraceful hospital in terms of the record-breaking number of people on trolleys.

The official figures provided by the HSE for Limerick are 38, but as the Deputy knows there is often a dispute between the figures produced by the INMO and those produced by the HSE. Whether the figure is 38 or 82 is beside the point. There should not be that level of overcrowding in University Hospital Limerick. The hospital has had enormous investment under this Government. It has a new state-of-the-art emergency department, which is one of the finest in the country. It has a new wing, the Leben wing, which is fully open and occupied, and has 25 new beds. A further 60 are under construction and should be open in the next couple of weeks. Another 96-bed block is planned.