Today, I want to raise a very serious situation that is developing at University Hospital Kerry. The situation is chaotic at this stage. The emergency department has been under severe pressure for some time now, but this week surgeons in the hospital wrote to GPs asking that non-urgent referrals for surgery not be sent to them because there are already 2,200 people awaiting assessment at the hospital. The situation has been deteriorating for some time and it now deserves intervention at the highest levels of government. I met the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, earlier this week.

I also called for a full briefing for County Kerry Oireachtas Members from the South/South West Hospital Group and University Hospital Kerry to discuss this matter and see if a plan can be put in place to address the issues. It is totally unacceptable and the people of County Kerry deserve a better health service than they are getting.

I have had a chance to visit University Hospital Kerry in Tralee on a number of occasions and it is a very fine hospital. However, like many hospitals, it is under a lot of pressure at the moment. I am told that this morning there were more than 19 patients on trolleys, which is a lot for a relatively small hospital. As is the case in most hospitals across the country, we have seen a big increase in waiting lists because of the backlog of unmet need and care that it was not possible to meet during the pandemic period. I recognise the Deputy is raising these concerns in the House. A task force on waiting lists has been established in the past couple of days but I will ask the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to pay particular attention to the situation in County Kerry, which I am aware has deteriorated a lot in recent weeks.