The hardworking staff at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, all of whom have the best interests of the people of Kerry at heart, have been contacting me because they are frustrated with the situation there. It is at breaking point. The average waiting time in the accident and emergency department is now ten hours, which is the second highest in the country. One woman told me that she was waiting with her son for 19 hours before he was finally put on a drip. Some 390 people were waiting on trolleys in January, which was a 10% increase on last year's figure. That is a bad start to the year.

Year after year for the past five years, elective surgeries have been cancelled. They have been cancelled in University Hospital Kerry since 19 December 2024, which was a full two months ago.

Thank you, Deputy.

What is the Government doing?

The Taoiseach to respond.

We need a minor injuries clinic close to where-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----the people who attend the accident and emergency department are.

The Deputy is in other Members' time.

We also need a modular day unit.

I thank the Deputy. I am more than happy to sit down with him about the provision for Kerry more generally in the capital plan. He is right to highlight the trolley situation. At 8 a.m. on Saturday, 1 February, for example, there were only four people on trolleys in University Hospital Kerry. By Tuesday morning, that number had risen to 18. There were 24 the following day and 28 thereafter. The number then fell to two the following Saturday. It moved to six before going back up to 20 on Monday and Tuesday, following the weekend. I am happy to speak to the Deputy about the underlying issues in respect of capacity but there is a weekend issue in University Hospital Kerry, as much as there is in other hospitals, and we must get to the bottom of that. It is not acceptable that the Deputy's constituents are more likely to wait on a trolley on a Sunday or Monday than on a Wednesday. That is not okay.