The Health Minister Leo Varadkar insisting it will take 'a number of years' to solve the trolley crisis here.

But he says despite nurses saying there are 516 people on trolleys or waiting for a bed in hospitals today, there is an improvement on the situation from this time last year.

He is visiting six hospitals today to see the problems first hand - and to see that those hospitals are doing everything they can to deal with the overcrowding problem.

Speaking at St James's Hospital in Dublin, Minister Varadkar again insisted this cannot be fixed quickly.