The Limerick Leader this morning quoted the family of an elderly patient in University Hospital Limerick who said she is in conditions that resemble a cattle mart. Every day in October an average of 80 people are lingering on trolleys in this hospital. I have raised this in the Dáil since I was first elected in 2016. We are facing into the winter crisis where it is going to get worse. Tomorrow, my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, and I are meeting the CEO of the hospital and the unions there. Can the Tánaiste tell me what specifically the Government intends to do to ensure that this winter is not a nightmare winter for the patients, for those who must attend University Hospital Limerick and for the staff there, who do a tremendous job in very difficult situations? It is unfair in this day and age to allow 80 people to be on trolleys, on average, each day. Some 1,000 people waited on trolleys in September and 80 every day so far in October. As it obviously will get worse as we reach the winter peak, I want to know what the Government intends to do. I as that the Tánaiste please does not come back to me with statistics and figures that do not mean anything to people who are on trolleys.

I thank the Deputy and I believe I answered this question already in part to Deputy Cullinane earlier today. We are increasing our bed capacity so that with more beds there will be fewer people on trolleys. We have added more than 800 beds, which are the equivalent of two medium-sized hospitals, since the beginning of the pandemic. That is why we have seen a reduction of the number of people on trolleys relative to where we would have been two to three years ago but that is still far too many, as I acknowledge and as the Deputy has also said.

We are hiring more staff and between 7,000 and 8,000 more staff were hired this year. The HSE has authority to hire the same again. We are investing in home care in order that people can get out of hospital more quickly or can avoid having to go there in the first place. There is also increased investment in primary care, such as GP diagnostics, in order that people are treated in the community, do not deteriorate and do not end up in hospital as frequently as they used to.