The trolley crisis has become an all-year scandal on the watch of this Government. A total of 98 patients were counted by nurses on trolleys and chairs at Cork University Hospital this morning, many of them elderly and quite unwell. This is a record, according to the INMO. A total of 118 were counted at University Hospital Limerick, which continues to be a disaster zone. In the five budgets under this Government, it has failed to tackle overcrowding in our hospitals. Níl an Rialtas tar éis aon dul chun cinn a dhéanamh sna cáinaisnéisí atá caite. Tá trí rud de dhíth ar an Rialtas. The Government needs to task HIQA with choosing a suitable location for the second emergency department in the mid-west, fast-track additional bed capacity for hospitals like Limerick and Cork and support GPs and community healthcare to take pressure off our acute hospitals. Does the Minister accept this is an emergency? Will the Government treat it as an emergency that we are facing this situation so early in this season?

A record amount of funding is going into health, which means we are making progress in reducing the number of patients on trolleys nationwide. The Minister for Health chairs monthly meetings with senior HSE figures to drive improved performance. There has been a significant reduction in the cumulative daily 8 a.m. trolley count over the first eight months of 2024, with numbers down 11% to over 9,000 when compared with the same period. This has been achieved despite an increase in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments, with comparative analysis for January to August 2024 compared with the same period showing an increase of 9% in overall attendance. Far fewer older patients experienced long waiting lists in emergency departments this year, with the number of patients aged 75 or over waiting more than 24 hours falling by 13%. The Minister is doing everything he can to continue to reduce those numbers but overall we are making progress and want to do more.