I again raise the issue of University Hospital Limerick, UHL. On 15 March, HIQA visited UHL to measure its compliance with four key standards. It failed three and was only partially compliant with the fourth. The report found that there was inadequate capacity and pointed to the fact that it was the only model 4 hospital and there were no model 3 hospitals in the region. It also found that there was inadequate management of existing capacity, in particular, human resources. That is just one day. Every day, UHL is overcrowded. Every day, it poses a danger to the patients it is supposed to serve. Every day, people are afraid to go to the emergency department. People are afraid that frail family members will be brought by ambulance to the department. They beg ambulance drivers to bring them to another facility. I have lived that fear, as have many families right across the constituency. As Head of Government of this State, will the Taoiseach take responsibility for remedying this into his Department to ensure it is remedied? If not, what will be done by the Government to remedy the situation?

The HSE is responsible for the delivery and operation of health services. The capacity is not there for any Department, including the Taoiseach's Department, to begin to run hospitals. That is simply not going to happen. It is not a runner, nor is it feasible or practical as a solution. In terms of what we can do, the Minister has met with the chair, the CEO and senior management of the HSE, and has requested the development of comprehensive plans with short-term and long-term measures to be taken nationally and at each emergency department and community healthcare organisation to ensure sustainable improvements in the performance of emergency departments. Without question, recent months have been highly challenging for emergency departments. The situation has been exacerbated by the constant recurrence and the prevalence of Covid-19, not just in terms of what happens in hospitals but of egress from hospitals and the inability of some community nursing units and nursing homes to take patients from the acute wards of hospitals because of them being subject to outbreaks of Covid as well, so it has been very challenging.