I wish to raise the ongoing and very serious issue of excessive waiting times in the accident and emergency department in Cavan General Hospital. As the Tánaiste is aware, residents of County Monaghan do not have access to an accident and emergency department in their county. Instead, they have to travel to Cavan hospital to receive emergency care. This places significant and unstable pressure on services. I continue to receive deeply concerning reports from constituents who are waiting for up to 24 hours before being seen by a nurse or doctor. The situation is simply not acceptable. Today, I urge the Tánaiste to consider the case for restoring a full accident and emergency service at Monaghan hospital. Doing so would significantly alleviate the pressure on Cavan hospital and ensure that the people of Monaghan, a county with a growing population of over 65,000, have timely and safe access to emergency care.

I thank Deputy Bennett. While we do not have plans to open new emergency departments, we do have plans to continue to drive investment into hospitals at levels 2 and 3, including Monaghan hospital. I remember visiting it a number of years ago. It is a very good hospital and it is ambitious about doing more. On foot of the Deputy raising this issue, I will ask the Minister for Health to come back to her on Cavan emergency department wait times and any further plans in regard to Monaghan.