A month ago, I raised the issue of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, UHL. The Taoiseach told me there was an expert group in place there to deal with overcrowding at the time and to develop recommendations into the future. I asked when it would report, to whom it would report and what were its terms of reference. I asked in particular whether the existing one model 4 hospital and the three model 2 hospitals were adequate. The Taoiseach did not know. He told me would come back to me, but he did not. I wrote to him since. I still have no reply. Today, a month later, there are 105 people on trolleys in Limerick. That figure was 81 when I raised the issue a month ago. What is going on in UHL? Does the Taoiseach even know?

The HSE established the task force and the team to go into University Hospital Limerick. It is obviously reporting back to the HSE.

The Taoiseach is washing his hands of it. He set up the HSE so that he could wash his hands of it.

No, I did not. That is nonsense. We saw during the pandemic the value of a single body to manage a pandemic. God forbid if we had 15 separate regional bodies trying to manage a pandemic and all that would have unfolded. There are pluses and there are minuses. Medical advice, royal college advice and so on, have all been of the view the configuration-----

Is the Taoiseach going to come back to me, or is he going to waffle?

The Deputy is heckling and he is interrupting. I simply made a point----

The Taoiseach is waffling.

No, I am not. Not at all. I simply made the point that a team was appointed by the HSE and it is reporting back to the HSE in respect of the challenges facing the mid-west, particularly University Hospital Limerick-----

When?

-----where there has been very significant investment.