A GOVERNMENT TD says the creation of additional bed capacity at University Hospital Limerick is the key to addressing the overcrowding crisis rather than the re-opening on the A&E units at St John's, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals.

Speaking at the launch of the Regeneron Great Limerick Run, Minister of State Niall Collins was asked for his reaction to the protest which saw 11,000 people march through Limerick city centre at the weekend.

Describing the march as "absolutely powerful demonstration of how people feel", the County Limerick TD said the current government has been taking action to address the problems at UHL.

He said additional medical professionals have been hired and that the number of GPs currently in training has been tripled.

"It's all about building capacity and the key to solving the issue at UHL, for me, is to build that extra capacity into the system to deal with the workload which is presenting at UHL in Dooradoyle," he said.

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When asked about calls to re-open the A&E departments at St John's, Ennis and Nenagh The Fianna Fail TD replied that would create issues around resources.

"Do you give all of the resources to have a fit-for-purpose A&E which wouldn't be uitilised as much as it should be utilised? The decision (to downgrade the three hospitals) was taken, at the time, to concentrate an A&E service in UHL in Dooradoyle and what wasn't followed through on was the additional bed capacity to deal with the cohort of people who would be presenting themselves at Dooradoyle but that's now happening."