Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

To some extent, sustainable planning hinges on the national spatial strategy. The strategy is explicit on the critical importance of some of the other matters referred to by Deputy Burton, including health care. Despite this, there has been a failure to have regard to these issues. I hope greater diligence will be shown in this respect in future.

In the case of the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk, critical services have been transferred from the hospital to other facilities, leaving a population in excess of 100,000 without these services. While the Green Party made substantial pre-election promises on these matters, they forgot about them after the election, which is most unfortunate. Perhaps I was naive in expecting more from the party. The allure of power was more attractive than looking after people on the ground and dealing with their critical needs——

See this speech in context