WATCH: Taoiseach talks UHL, motorway, plebiscite on mayor and much more to Limerick Leader

Limerick Leader: “You’re here in Limerick to show your support for a directly elected mayor for the county and I suppose one of the things that people really want to know is what benefits are there to having a directly elected mayor?”

An Taoiseach: “Essentially what that means, if people want it, is that Limerick city and county will be able to vote for their own mayor. That mayor will have a five year term in office, will chair council meetings and take over some of the functions that are currently held by unelected executives.” 

“So the mayor, he or she, will propose the budget, propose the development plan and will represent the city and county when they are coming to the central government, looking for problems to be fixed or investment. The mayor will also travel internationally and campaign for investment in the city and county, whether its jobs, sporting events or festivals.” 

“We know from around the world that where we have a directly elected mayor, that person carries a lot more weight than maybe someone who is only elected by other politicians and are only mayor for a year. By the time they get known or get a hand for the job, they’re being moved on to something else.” 

Limerick Leader: “And are there any concerns that maybe someone with a non-political background, a celebrity type, might become a directly elected mayor?” 

An Taoiseach: “Yeah, that comes up as an issue that some people are concerned about. I’ve more of an open mind on that because sometimes people from outside of politics can make good politicians and make good mayors. Mary Robinson for example became the president of Ireland. She’s a smart woman, a lawyer, but she had never held office before that. But did that mean she made a bad president? No. Whether you like him or not, Ronald Reagan started off his career acting.”

“I should say there is a safeguarding that will be built into the process. So you know the way it is possible to impeach the president, it hasn’t happened but it can be done, but if for some reason that the mayor turns out to be a total lunatic or does things that are wrong, the councillors can actually by a qualified majority remove them through the safeguarding process.” 

Limerick Leader: “We had the good news in relation to the signing of the M20 motorway design contracts but we’re hearing now it will be 2027. This project has been something that has been discussed and promised for at least a decade, and now it's another eight years for a connecting motorway between two major Irish cities, Limerick and Cork. There are people who will be very frustrated by that.” 

An Taoiseach: “The truth is it would have been built already if it wasn’t for the national economic crisis that we experienced ten years ago. I was in the government in 2012 when we had to suspend a lot of projects like the Metro in Dublin and the M20 here because we didn’t have the money to do it.”

“But now the economy is back on track and as long as we keep managing the economy well, we have the money now to do things that we couldn’t do five or six years ago.”

“Building a motorway of this scale does take time, and this is going to be the biggest road investment in the country over the next ten years. It actually does take a while after it gets planning permission; Building a motorway takes three or four years and the contract signing is the design of it, to bring it to An Bord Pleanala. And there will be objections, and people are entitled to object.” 

Above: Leo Varadkar leafs through the dossier of patient testimony from UHL presented to him by Leader editor Eugene Phelan

Limerick Leader: “The Limerick Leader has been running its ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign to highlight the ongoing trolley crisis at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). Our lead story {last week} focuses on a 92-year-old woman who spent more than 100 hours waiting on a trolley for care. Her family have put out a plea, asking you to visit UHL. Was it something you had planned to do on this visit?” 

An Taoiseach: “No. First of all, I am very sorry to hear that lady had that experience in our hospital system. The vast majority of people who use our health system have a good experience.” 

Limerick Leader: “Well, we have been contacted by 450 people, who for the most part, have had a bad experience at UHL.” 

An Taoiseach: “Don’t get me wrong for a second, I am not denying the fact that we have a particular problem getting in to our hospitals. When people are in, they get very good care but there are far too many people on waiting lists. I’ve worked in emergency departments and I know the indignity that is experienced by patients and their families. I know the stress of working in an emergency department. It wasn’t on my schedule today, I have been there though.” 

Limerick Leader: “Have you been to UHL as Taoiseach?” 

An Taoiseach: “Honestly, no. I have been there at least twice when I was Health Minister. But like I say, I don’t need to visit another emergency department to know what overcrowding looks like. I’ve worked in three of them, I’ve visited every one in the country when I was Health Minister. As you know there has been a lot of investment in the hospital already. The newest, biggest, most modern emergency department in the country is now open. There is a 60-bed block now under construction [expected to be ready to start admitting patients in late 2020} Behind that we are planning another one with another 90 beds. That’s 150 extra beds, the size of a small hospital being added to UHL. But we know from bitter experience across the country that just adding more beds and more staff doesn’t work. I would hate to see us next year with 60 extra beds open with just as many people on trolleys.” 

Limerick Leader: A lot of these solutions seem to be coming down the line. Is there anything in the interim that can be done? 

An Taoiseach: “It takes a lot of things and it is very hard to make this work. It's not just about the hospital, you have to make sure community services work very well as well so that they are good enough to make sure that people don’t end up in hospital as well. Our new contract with the GPs I think will also really help with that. You have to make sure that people can get out of hospital as well. There are a lot of people waiting on nursing homes. We need to make better use of Ennis and Nenagh, where there is capacity. We also need to make sure that once someone gets into the hospital, that they aren’t waiting around for tests for days or to see a specialist when that could all be done in one day. Limerick is one of the better lengths of stay, so I’m not saying that it isn’t doing some things well, but it means getting everything right.”

An Taoiseach: “Another thing we are doing, not just in Limerick but in a few hospitals around the country that had a bad winter, and a bad spring and a bad summer in some cases, we are bringing in an independent review to see how they can operate better. The other thing of course is making sure we make Home Help available and Fair Deal available so those patients who don’t need to be in hospital don’t need to be.” 

Limerick Leader: “There are people who will argue that we know we need more beds, we need more staff, we need better diagnostics and we need community support and we need them now. What is this independent review going to find that hasn’t been discussed?”

An Taoiseach: “We can’t really preempt the outcome of an independent review. The whole point of it being independent is it is not predetermined what it’s going to find but I think what it can do is help us to plan ahead. It will help us to make sure that when those 60 beds open next year. That they don’t just get clogged up and that it makes a real difference in terms of patients going through the hospital much more quickly.”

An Taoiseach: “I think that is the way I would see it, is that the extra resources are happening. The budget has been going up every year for a few years, there are more staff every year. It’s about getting the 150 people in the system doing the right thing. Some of them might be working really hard but they mightn’t realise that they need to do things a bit differently.”