The minister 'must act now': Alan Kelly calls for free flu jabs to combat overcrowding

Labour Party leader Alan Kelly speaking on the plinth of Leinster House, Dublin.

The leader of the Labour Party is calling for free flu jabs to be offered to everyone this winter.

Alan Kelly said that, unless we address the overcrowding in emergency departments around the country, we are facing into another bad winter at Irish hospitals.

Mr Kelly said offering the free jab would be "cost effective" as it would reduce the number of hospitalisations over the winter.

Recent figures show that 10% of patients at University Hospital Limerick last winter ended up waiting longer than 24 hours for treatment.

Alan Kelly says that with Covid-19 we can't afford to have a situation where overcrowding continues.

"We will have a crisis in our health service, in our emergency departments over the winter months which will be at a scale we have never seen before unless the minister acts now.

"The reality is with Covid, we cannot afford to have a situation where the overcrowding and waiting times in our emergency departments across the country is allowed to happen again. He must act now."

On Wednesday, the number of people on trolleys in Irish hospitals surpassed 200 for the first time since early March.