Over the past couple of weeks, while we were all in recess, the numbers on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick increased to new record levels. I am becoming a broken record at this stage coming into this Chamber to speak on this issue because every month the figures seem to get higher and higher. We have been told by the Minister for Health that HIQA will carry out an investigation and inquiry into this. Yet, HIQA itself believes that it has no further role. I have been calling for an independent inquiry into the situation at Limerick hospital for many months at this stage and I welcome the fact that there is now going to be such an inquiry. We do not know the detail of this, who the person or persons who have been tasked with doing this are, what their background and qualifications are, whether they are from abroad or from Ireland, how independent they will be, what the terms of reference are, and what the timeline is. We do not need solutions to this problem in six or 12 months; we need them very quickly in weeks rather than in months. What is the timeline for this inquiry and, most importantly, will the recommendations be published and implemented. I ask for a debate with the Minister for Health in this House on emergency departments in general and, most specifically, on Limerick's at the earliest possible convenience.

It is not that long ago that Senators Ahearn, Maria Byrne and myself tabled a tripartite Commencement debate on this issue and the response we received was not what we should have got. We need statements now on emergency departments, specifically on the University Hospital Limerick group.

Finally, I welcome the investment announced by the Minister, Deputy Harris, this morning on third level education. Third level education in this country had been underfunded for a long time and while this is not going to make up for the shortfall, I believe it is a very genuine first step in the right direction and I hope that this funding will reflect equality of access to third level for minority groups and for people with disabilities.

I support the request for a debate on data protection and retention by the Department of Social Protection. These are issues that I highlighted throughout the previous Oireachtas. In addition to the concerns on travel, there are also the concerns on many of the actions and findings of the Data Protection Commissioner, which are no longer contested by the Department but which have still not been carried out, on the improper retention of information and documents. I would also like those to be part of the debate.

I also second the calls for a debate on higher education. It is important that we look to the detail here, including, for example, the issue of public-public research as distinct from public-private research as well as the important core issues of access for students and fair play and decent conditions for those who work in our higher education institutions.

I also ask that we might have a debate on Lyme disease, or that it might be incorporated into another debate. This is an issue that has been highlighted to me and I know so many wonderful people whose lives have been unnecessarily and unavoidably curtailed by the fact that the State still fails to have proper preventative recognition or diagnostic actions in respect of Lyme disease. It is very regrettable that so much has been lost to so many people and to us collectively by the State’s failure in that regard.

Finally, and this is a fundamental point, I welcome the right decision of the Government to delay its decision on the national maternity hospital for two weeks. I look forward to the opportunity for this House and the other House to scrutinise this issue in some detail. This is something that we cannot afford to get wrong and that we will pass on for the next 100 years. There is sometimes the idea that with some costs, we must move on and get it over with. My core concern is that, for no real reason and avoidably, we may decide that instead of having a public national maternity hospital, we will have a national maternity hospital run by a private entity, be that a voluntary trust of whatever kind, in which the State has to negotiate on an ongoing basis for decades ahead on crucial matters, even though the State pays for the hospital, both its building and its running.

That is not acceptable and does not make sense. We are not in the Ireland of 1922, a new State which relied on partners. We are not even in the Ireland of 2016 and the Mulvey report. The delays to the project have been from those the State is negotiating with, who waited many years for permission from the Vatican on leasing. If the State cannot get clear language on clinical procedures, why should we make ourselves vulnerable to future negotiations on an ongoing basis, especially looking at Roe v. Wade and at the context wherein we need to move forward and not create hostages to fortune? The State needs to evolve and a new proposal must be part of that.