Yesterday, at Letterkenny University Hospital eight ambulances were backed up outside. Patients were in the back of those ambulances rather than being cared for in the hospital. This is not a rare occurrence. A week previously a similar number of ambulances were outside and I am sure the Minister will agree that this is utterly unacceptable. I received a report late last night that an 88-year-old woman had been on a hard seat all day long, waiting for care, as had a 79-year-old man. Recently the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, came up to Donegal and met with GPs and consultants who had been seeking such a meeting for weeks. When will he act on the proposals they made which are crucial to the hospital?

I agree it is not acceptable that elderly people would be sitting in ambulances waiting to get into hospital. Effectively the ambulance becomes a remote bed which, for all sorts of reasons, is not the way the system should work. I am glad to hear that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, was in Donegal speaking to practitioners and I expect he will come back to Deputy Mac Lochlainn with an answer in relation to those discussions but I will certainly remind him of that.