SINN FÉIN leader Gerry Adams has compared overcrowding in the A&E department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda with overcrowding in prisons he had been in.

He spoke of recently being treated after “I wrenched myself very badly while cycling” and ended up in three hospitals and two ambulances over three days.

Mr Adams said he initially went to the minor injuries unit at Louth County Hospital which did not have the facilities to deal with him so he was transferred by ambulance to Drogheda “where I spent the night on a trolley”. He was not complaining and it was “a worthwhile experience for a member of the legislature”. Other people were on trolleys and elderly people were in a corridor and distressed.

“There was one toilet serving a very modern hospital unit. It reminded me of overcrowding in prisons I have been in.”

Mr Adams was speaking during Taoiseach’s questions in the Dáil. The Louth TD said his “admiration, respect and support for the staff was unbounded” as they dealt with these difficulties. He waited 5½ hours to be seen by a doctor.

He had to return to hospital for other checks, driving to Drogheda but taken by ambulance back to Dublin. The professionalism and attention of the health workers at every level was edifying. “However, I also saw real distress. I heard people tell me they had been there for 10 hours.”

Mr Adams told Taoiseach Enda Kenny “I am okay” but “other people do not have a voice and cannot articulate this point”.

The Taoiseach said the Louth TD looked fine and “if you feel up to it you can join me and Minister Jimmy Deenihan for a charity cycle on the Ring of Kerry”.

He added that there was no disagreement about the “stress, tension and imposition on people who must lie on trolleys”.

Mr Kenny said the Sinn Féin leader had highlighted the commitment of front-line professionals but also pointed to why the structure had to be changed.

The question of restructuring the health delivery system for the future “is obviously complex and tortuous”.

The Taoiseach said there had been a perception of “catastrophe coming down the tracks” when so many health professionals left at the end of February, but it did not happen because there was a plan for each hospital. The Minister for Health “has set out a commitment to reduce times on trolleys” and there had been achievements “but it requires further work”.