Matthew Healy was killed in a violent attack in Mercy University Hospital in Cork in the early hours of Sunday morning. I want to extend sympathy to his family and friends. In the past five years, there have been more than 50,000 assaults on staff alone in our hospitals according to the HSE, of which 274 were sexual assaults.

The last time there was a security audit across the hospital system was seven years ago in 2016. I am calling for a security audit to be organised across the hospital service now. I am also calling for money to be set aside for measures to improve security for patients and staff alike in our hospitals. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's response to these two proposals.

I am deeply saddened and was quite shocked to hear about what happened to Mr. Healy only a few days ago. My heart and my thoughts go out to his family and friends and to his community. It is particularly sad that this happened to him only a few weeks after he buried his own wife.

Sadly, as we all know, assaults can happen anywhere. Hospitals should be safe places, however, and we should do everything we can to minimise the number of assaults that happen in our hospitals. We will certainly give the idea of a security audit consideration. I know it has been called for by some of the professional groups and trade unions. I will need to speak to the Minister for Health about that and perhaps on foot of that audit, find out if there are additional measures we can put in place in our hospitals to make sure incidents like this do not happen again, or if they do happen that they can be responded to more quickly and perhaps prevent further injury.