I, too, would like to start by wishing everybody a happy Christmas, including the Cathaoirleach. I thank him for his collegiality as we worked together over the past 12 months. I thank Mr. Martin Hughes and the staff in the Seanad Office but also the Leader's Office, our Leader, Senator Seán Kyne, and to Orla, who also buried her mother during the year. I extend my sympathies to her as well.

I thank the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for working with a cross-party group in the mid-west in regard to delivery at University Hospital Limerick, UHL. I acknowledge the fact that, in UHL, things have improved in the past 12 months. Ms Sandra Broderick, Mr. Ian Carter and the team have started to turn things around. Still, as highlighted in the HIQA report, we are short those extra beds. I welcome the fact that options A, B and C are happening together. A and B have already started. It has gone out to tender, the foundations have been put in and it will be a further 96-bed block. The Minister has instructed the HSE to find a site quite near UHL, to look at plans for that site, how it can be best developed with possibly the maternity moving over there, but also building so many beds to move the less acute patients there and to use the vacated beds for acute patients in the current hospital. It is good news because we have waited a long time. We have had many plans and conversations down through the years. When I was first elected to the House in 2016, I highlighted the issues at UHL, the facts around the conditions staff had to work under and the number of people who have died there. It has been really sad for their families and for the greater community.

This is a good news story and I hope the plans will move forward as quickly as possible.