I will take the Ceann Comhairle back to my maiden speech when he was also in the Chair. My maiden speech related to UHL. What disappoints me is that it has taken four years for the Opposition to finally stand up and join me over UHL. It has taken four years for Opposition Deputies to stand up officially and talk about UHL. Because an election is coming, they are all jumping all over it. The Social Democrats mentioned UHL today but I have not heard its Deputies mention the hospital once since I came into the House. Sinn Féin is at it again today. For the four years since my maiden speech, I have asked for help but I have not been helped.

I am going to give the House a small history lesson on UHL. Jessica Sheedy was 18 years of age. She went into UHL on 8 May 2018 and died there on 11 May. Aoife Johnston went into UHL at 16 years of age and died there. That is the record of this Dáil with respect to fixing a problem in UHL. The only way the Government is going to fix UHL is to start at the top. I asked for the resignation of the CEO at the start. I do not believe that any medical person should be in charge of any hospital. A business person should be in charge with a board set up of medical staff. Why do I want the CEO to be a business person? I want that because business people are not conflicted and are not giving their jobs to their buddies who cannot do the job. They are not protecting their buddies when they do not do their jobs. If we put in a CEO from the private sector and who is accountable to the board of all medical staff, we can fire them if they do not get results. That has been the problem in UHL and all the other hospitals that have not performed properly. The person at the top cannot be fired. That is the problem. The Government wants to fix the problem; I am giving it the solution. It should put in a business person who is accountable to the people of Ireland and it should put in a medical staff that is accountable to the person who is in charge. If the board does not do its job, it should be held accountable by a person who is not conflicted by his or her connection to medical circles. That has been the problem. The CEO who was appointed in UHL was appointed by then Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar. That was who she was appointed by. That person was also involved in the Galway scandal when a person died and paperwork went missing. No accountability has been the problem.

Please, Deputy.

That is a matter of public record. It is written on the papers.

It might be, but the Deputy is getting into extremely dangerous territory. We are not entitled to make any accusations or implications in respect of the professionalism of any individual, whether he or she is leading a hospital or in any other profession.

Okay. I will take whatever comes down the line on this. People are dying in that hospital. If it was your daughter or son, would you be sitting here and pulling me on the same thing? Would you? Four or five years down the line, there has been no change.

Thank you, Deputy, your time is up.

Two young people have died and there has been no change. That is the problem with UHL.

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue about which he clearly, and understandably, feels passionate. Without wishing to make Opposition parties in this House feel uncomfortable, I do not doubt that all parties raise this issue on a regular basis. I do not doubt the bona fides of anybody on any side of this House in respect of wanting to see progress in healthcare and in respect of UHL. That should be the starting point for any civil debate or discussion we have.

I agree with the Deputy on the broader point about the fact that doctors and nurses in this country are regulated. Many other allied healthcare professionals are regulated through CORU. They all have various accountability structures if something goes wrong. I do not think in any scenario that the role of management should be discounted. I agree on that much. I am talking more broadly than about any specific case. I share the view that there are many parts to the health service. There is clinical care. There is also the responsibility of Government around capacity, resources and policy.

I get that. However, there is also a responsibility on those who are paid a very decent wage on a day-to-day basis to do their job too. Any fair look at any situation in the health service has to look at all the aspects.

What I certainly have no doubt about with regard to UHL is that alongside the very harrowing and disturbing evidence that was heard at Aoife Johnston's inquest, we will now see the Frank Clarke report, which I believe is due in the next few weeks. The hope of Government is that it is due this month. The fact that the former most senior judge, a former Chief Justice, is carrying out that report I hope gives the Deputy an indication of how seriously we take this issue. The Deputy has heard colleagues talk about and question me on this today, and there is an issue around bed capacity in the mid-west. That is accepted. We need to continue to grow it. We all need to look at innovative ways to do that quickly, and we are. There is a need to continue to grow the workforce in UHL and contrary to some charges in this House, that is happening and will continue to happen. However, there is also a need to look at pathways within the mid-west and how we use all the various parts of capacity to help serve the people of the mid-west. Alongside all those extra resources, beds and staff and improved pathways, there is also the need to know the place is being well run and safely run. It would be foolish of any of us to prejudge the Frank Clarke report. I have no knowledge of what is in it. I can certainly tell the Deputy that we are going to take it very seriously, however, because you do not send in a retired Chief Justice to do a job and then not take any recommendations that flow from that very seriously.

I hope that what the Taoiseach is saying is that Jessica Sheedy will not have died in vain and that somebody else's life will be saved. However, that was 2018. Now, we are talking about Aoife Johnston. Where are we going? There has to be accountability within the hospital system. The other thing the Government has to look at is how much has been spent on legal fees fighting these cases and more over stuff that could have been fixed in the past five years if people had put up their hands and apologised. Bernard Gloster came out the other day and apologised. It is the first time the HSE has actually said it was sorry. Anyone can make a mistake but if we learn from the mistake, we are moving forward. The mistakes are being covered up, however, and legal bills of €50 million and €60 million are being spent on budgets the Taoiseach is talking about that could be used to improve the hospital system.

UHL was the best training hospital in this country. My own sister trained there many years ago; she is now retired. It was the best. Now, people go anywhere bar there because they are afraid and in fear of their lives. It is not right for any person to avoid a hospital and say they might not get the care or that when they get in, they might not get the care they need. Getting them into where they need the care is the problem.

The Deputy pointed to a couple of issues. We are all very proud of the work being done by staff in the hospital. The Deputy is right to make that point. Staff working on the front line in UHL are doing extraordinarily good and important work in providing the very best care they possibly can to the people of the mid-west. We are not in any way, shape or form moving away from the very difficult and painful situations that have arisen in that hospital. I acknowledge that many people have had very excellent outcomes thanks to the dedication of the care. We intend to continue to grow the number of people working in the hospital. There is no recruitment embargo with regard to emergency departments or the population there.

When we look objectively at the number of people who work in the hospital, the budget of the hospital and the bed capacity of the hospital now versus a couple of years ago, all those have moved in the right way. I accept that we need to move more quickly on that and that we need to be innovative and challenge ourselves with regard to interim solutions.

More broadly, on the issue of open disclosure when things go wrong, we have legislated in this House, through the patient safety Act, to try to create that culture so that when an incident happens - I am not talking about a specific one - people can share information, admit mistakes and engage in open discussion. There is a need for accountability, however.