I apologise for having to nip out earlier and thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to speak now. There are many important events about which I could talk today. There are many events that have happened since the House last met. There has been the Apple case, the huge efforts by the Government to hand back the €13 billion and the continuous denials that we have facilitated tax evasion and avoidance on a huge scale. We have the NAMA inquiry and the shenanigans that appear to have gone at it. I call for a debate in the House on the issue.

The real subject about which I want to talk to the Leader today, however, is health. Since we last met, a patient died while waiting on a trolley in Galway. We cannot stand by and let that happen. It was a tragedy for the individual's family and friends and it had happened before, most recently at Tallaght hospital. There are 33 patients waiting on trolleys at Galway University Hospital and the national figure is 396. These are the lucky ones. They are the ones who are actually given a trolley. There has been a continuing saga of vital treatment being postponed because people cannot even be given a trolley or a bed. There are patients who had to go home from emergency departments because there were no beds and they could not be seen.

There is a great deal of amnesia in the House. I agree with Senator Frank Feighan. I remind people of the trolley numbers from 2001 when Deputy Micheál Martin was Minister for Health and Children. In 2001 there were more than 500 patients on trolleys. When former Deputy Mary Harney was Minister for Health and Children, I invited her to come to Mayo General Hospital to look into the eyes of the people who were spending their last days on earth on trolleys and tell them why they could not have a bed or a room, but nothing was done. It was declared at the time to be a national emergency. It continued in 2006 and, again, in 2008, when over 400 patients were left on trolleys and nothing was done. We must be mindful that at the time the country was awash with money, but the problem was completely ignored. Members who talk about health as if it was a crisis that dropped out of the sky in recent months are deluding themselves. I want the Minister for Health to come to the House to tell us what the plan is. I remind former Deputy Mary Harney that she closed, aided and abetted by Fianna Fáil, the hospital in Belmullet.

Former Deputy Mary Harney retired from politics.

She has gone to PD heaven. Privatisation and centralisation have ruined the health service.