On a number of occasions in recent months I referred to the emergency department at University Hospital Galway, UHG, being unfit for purpose and I am particularly pleased the Taoiseach reiterated my comments in this regard in the Dáil yesterday.

What is he going to do about it?

The facility was originally designed to cater for approximately 100 people per day but up to 250 people now access the facility on a daily basis. During a recent visit to the hospital the leader of Fianna Fáil shed a lot of crocodile tears about the state of the place but he neglected to explain why, during the boom, no investment was put into the facility. I call on the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, to ensure that a new facility is included under the HSE capital plan, which I expect to be published early in the new year. It is unfair to patients using the facility and to staff, the nurses and doctors, who are attempting to give safe care to people accessing the emergency department at UHG. The time for talking is over and we need to see action soon.

That is a bit rich.

It will take some time to bring a new facility on stream, even if the funding is sanctioned in the morning. I hope, therefore, that the management of the hospital will do everything possible - structurally and in the context of the existing facilities there - to alleviate some of the pressure in the emergency department.

I welcome the Exchequer returns which, for the first time since 2007, show a surplus - some €343 million - at the end of November. Tax receipts are 11.9% higher than the same month last year and this is an indication that the economy is coming back on track. There is now more spending in the economy and, hopefully, from now on our income and expenditure will balance and we will cease borrowing for day-to-day expenditure.