In 2020, the people of Waterford placed their trust me, many driven by a single issue, namely, the undelivered promise of 24-7 cardiac care in University Hospital Waterford. This is a critical service and a matter of life and death for the 600,000 people in the south east who rely on University Hospital Waterford. We have seen the tragic consequences of this unmet need through stories like that of Tom Power and Una McDermott, and the data exposed by the "RTÉ Investigates" team. An entire community marched in protest. Some 22,000 people took to the streets of Waterford in 2013. The issue is not new nor is the frustration.

The Taoiseach has a legacy here. As Minister for Health in 2016, he commissioned the Herity report, a document so riddled with errors that the word "clinical" was misspelled on the front page. It was hastily thrown together, deliberately misinformed, marred by dodgy and incorrect data and is still used to shield inaction. When the flaws of that report became apparent, as Minister for Health in 2016 he commissioned the national review of specialist cardiac care services led by Philip Nolan. For the past six years we have been told to wait for that review. The report remains buried on the desk of the Minister for Health. Promises have been made and recycled. The Taoiseach's colleague the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, stood for a photo in Waterford in 2016 promising 24-7 cardiac care for the south east, a promise that played a role in his party's regaining a seat in the region. Standing beside him was the now Minister of State at the Department of Health, the main beneficiary of that promise. Last November on WLR's Damien Tiernan show, the Minister of State assured us that recruitment for a seven-day service would begin in January. In March, she had to return to assure us that recruitment would start in June. Again she returned and again nothing has happened. The promises are repeated but the people of Waterford wait.

Today I ask for clarity and accountability. When will the Government deliver 24-7 emergency cardiac care in Waterford? In his response, I ask the Taoiseach to limit his comments to the issue of 24-7 cardiac care. This is not about political point scoring. It is about fulfilling commitments made to a community. The Taoiseach now holds the levers of power and has the legacy on the issue. I ask him to expunge this wrong and show the people of the south east that politics can work for them.

In this democracy, the Deputy gets to ask the question but he does not get to tell people what they can say in response. I think it is quite important that I have a right to speak freely in this Chamber to which I am also democratically elected.

The Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh and Senator John Cummins have been working on this, as has Deputy Shanahan and Deputy Cullinane. We should not doubt the bona fides of all people in Waterford in trying to improve the services for people in University Hospital Waterford and improve the cardiac services. While we have our political spats from time to time, I do not doubt the Deputy's bona fides on this. I acknowledge that.

We have seen a significant level of investment to improve and expand cardiac services. The second cath lab opened on 4 September 2023. By any fair measurement that was an important milestone. It has been operating five days per week, Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. We have seen 24 whole-time equivalents provided to open the second cath lab. The hospital is using a combination of day beds and recovery spaces for the operation of the second cath lab. The medium- to long-term options for recovery beds are now being discussed with the HSE, involving the relocation of the on-call residents and refurbishment of this area. The opening hours for the first cath lab were also extended in September 2022. Permission has now been granted to recruit a specific group of staff for the initial tranche for 2024. It is now an operational issue for the HSE to do so. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has assured me that permission has been granted by the Department of Health to recruit a specific number of staff for the initial tranche of new developments for this year. The HSE is now charged and getting on with doing that.

In light of the Deputy's raising the issue today, which is a fair and important issue for people of Waterford, I will engage directly with the CEO of the HSE to seek an urgent update on this matter. All of us in this House want to see an expansion of those services. We need to do it in a way that is clinically advised and clinically safe. I will seek an urgent update from the CEO of the HSE for the Deputy on the matter.

Yesterday, the Government announced a budget of €10.1 billion and yet in the south east at this time, we can only treat heart-attack patients in a cath lab for 60 hours per week. I remind the Taoiseach that Katie Hannon's RTÉ report showed that only 3% of heart-attack patients were getting out of the region when the Waterford lab was closed. That report was from five years ago and I hardly imagine that ambulances transfer times have improved since then. Four families living within a five-mile radius of me have had members who have suffered a heart attack.

One of those is Jennifer Pheasey, whose father Willie Doyle started the first cardiac care group in Waterford. That is more than a decade ago. These families worry every night, and go to bed apprehensively waiting for the dawn, because they know there is no service available to them. Many times in the House I have heard the Taoiseach mention and reference that the Government wants to leave nobody behind. We are leaving a whole region behind. We do not need a report to tell us what is needed in the south east. We have the testimony of the McDermott family and the Power family. We have many other testimonies of people who had delayed cardiac care and are suffering as a result. I ask the Taoiseach please to implement this. I remind him that the HSE recruitment embargo stopped the recruitment of the seven-day service by not bringing those people forward. They were emergency personnel. Why were they included in the embargo? I ask the Taoiseach to get the Department and the Government to stop dragging their feet and deliver this equality issue to the south east.

I thank Deputy Shanahan. There has been a significant level of investment in University Hospital Waterford. I know Deputy Shanahan does not want me to broaden the issue too much but I want to say for the people of Waterford, who no doubt will follow the debate, that we have seen staffing at the hospital grow by 866 people from the end of 2019 to today. There are 49 more consultant doctors, 114 more NCHDs, 378 more nurses and midwives, as well as 118 more health and social care professionals. In 2019 the hospital in Waterford had a budget of €201 million. In 2024 the budget is more than €309 million. The budget has grown during the lifetime of the Government by €108 million. I accept there is work to do, I really do, but I do want people to know there has been more than €100 million of additional investment, significant extra staff increases and the expansion of our cardiac services. In light of Deputy Shanahan raising the issue today I will seek an update from HSE chief executive and come back to him directly on it.