Campaigners against UHL overcrowding set to take their case to the Dáil

PROTESTERS campaigning against the overcrowding crisis at University Hospital Limerick look set to take their case to the gates of Dáil Eireann.

Garryowen man Mike Daly, who has organised a number of protests seeking the re-opening of the emergency departments at St John’s Hospital in the city centre, as well as at Ennis and Nenagh, is seeking at least 500 people to commit to travelling to Leinster House.

“Our protests in Limerick seem to have fallen on deaf ears. After the second protest, I was speaking to one or two friends of mine and we are going to organise a protest at the Dáil. We are not just going to turn up and hope people will follow us. We are going to get a signed commitment from 500 people that they’d come with us,” he explained.

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“There’s not much more we can do as a people in Limerick,” Mr Daly added.

Separately, he has written to the European Commission to ask the group to determine if the number of emergency departments relative to the population of the region constitutes a human rights breach.

In a letter to the Brussels-based organisation, he wrote: “I believe it goes against our human rights to have only one accident and emergency service looking after the whole of the Mid-West of Ireland. Please can the European Commission become involved here as a matter of national emergency for the whole of the Mid-West of Ireland. This is a human rights issue,” his communication to the group reads.