An election candidate in Mayo, Harry Barrett, has stated that he will be at Mayo University Hospital (MUH) on  Thursday to hand Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a letter.

Mr Barrett, a former Castlebar councillor,  says his letter will be asking the Taoiseach why, after 12 years of Fine Gael being in government, did we have record breaking trolley numbers in MUH in January, February, March and April of this year.

It asks why has his party broken a promise, made in 2011, to fix the trolley crisis.

"I want the Taoiseach to tell the people of Mayo on Thursday when his government will put an end to the practice of putting sick elderly people on trolleys.

It is acceptable to him, in 2023 that one in 82 elderly patients will die within a month if kept on a trolley for between six and eight hours, as a recent study revealed," he added.

People of the county are sick and tired of the broken promises made by successive governments and now want answers as to when things will improve. I will give an Taoiseach a chance to respond to my letter and I will publish his answers in every local paper. 

A promise was made to fix this crisis 12 years ago and that promise has been broken and in my book, a promise made to the people is a debt unpaid".