Ireland’s healthcare system is in crisis. Every day, people across the country face pain, delay, and distress caused by overcrowded hospitals, long waiting lists, and inconsistent attention to patient needs. Recent statements and decisions by the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, have further eroded public confidence in the Department’s leadership and its capacity to deliver urgent, patient-centred reform. Our broken Healthcare System urgently requires competent and accountable leadership, as well as swift and measurable action. For these reasons, we call for the immediate resignation of the Minister for Health and the appointment of leadership committed to urgency, accountability, and delivery.

Women living with endometriosis have been particularly let down. After years of advocacy for a single, properly resourced national specialist centre, the Minister rejected this proposal and advanced a regional model that remains under-staffed and unevenly implemented. Publication and full rollout of the National Endometriosis Framework have been delayed, leaving women without clear pathways to timely diagnosis, multidisciplinary care, and expert excision surgery. The result is a persistent surgical backlog and vacant posts across centres and hubs. With no guaranteed, upfront state-funded access to specialist excision abroad when Irish capacity is lacking, women continue to wait in pain, self-fund treatment, or travel overseas for care that should be available at home.

Primary care is strained, with GP shortages, patchy out-of-hours cover, and a slow roll-out of community care hubs. Mental health services are similarly under-resourced: CAMHS and adult services lack capacity, and access to talking therapies is limited. Across the system, prevention and community-based management of chronic disease remain insufficient, driving avoidable demand into hospitals. These people with complex, poorly served conditions, such as Lyme disease, also endure limited effective health support and have no other choice but to seek treatment outside of Ireland.

Record hospital overcrowding has left patients on trolleys for days, with repeated warnings about risks to patient safety. Persistent regional flashpoints—such as ongoing pressures at University Hospital Limerick—underscore the need for urgent capacity solutions and sustained investment across the system.

Failures extend to children’s services. Despite additional funding and the use of overseas options, scoliosis and spina bifida care continue to face serious delays, prompting calls for accountability and culture change. The National Children’s Hospital project has suffered repeated delays and cost overruns, undermining public trust and absorbing resources that should translate into timely care.

The path forward is clear. Ireland needs leadership that will set urgent, measurable targets, publish monthly progress on waiting lists and theatre capacity, staff-funded posts without delay, and ring-fence resources for women’s health and complex conditions. We need guaranteed access to necessary treatment. ABOVE ALL, WE NEED A HEALTH SERVICE THAT TREATS EVERY PERSON WITH DIGNITY, URGENCY, AND FAIRNESS.

We have lost confidence in the current Minister’s ability to deliver this programme of action. We therefore call for her immediate resignation and the appointment of leadership capable of restoring trust, protecting patients, and delivering results.