Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

Naturally, we will fight to keep it for as long as we need it and as long as we can for many other reasons, but the medical practitioners who advise us state this is okay if it is planned properly.

In fairness, the Minister has stood up to most officials in the HSE stating that with any more closures, he wants to know about it and we will plan it and do it properly. Closures, rearrangement or transformation etc., will be done properly in a planned way in which they can work, not in an ad hoc way that is not part of any greater plan.

I believe the plan of using the smaller hospitals is the right way to go. We should take out some of the services that are causing overcrowding in the big hospitals and bring them back to hospitals such as the one in my area of Navan. We should put them to good use. Those small hospitals are underperforming because they are not being let perform to their potential. We should let them do their job and give them more of what they can do locally on their site. In cases of overcrowding in accident and emergency departments in some hospitals, perhaps we need to look at smaller hospitals in the short term to ease that as well.

The FairCare document, which is criticised in the motion, will eventually lead to a one-tier health system that is fair across the board. I accept that many on the other side of the House would rather that it was funded completely out of the public purse. We are going down the health insurance route. Either way will achieve the same result - a one-tier health system. Everybody, no matter what money is in his or her pocket, goes through that door. One will get treated for whatever health service is there because one will be of benefit to that hospital. Whether it is the person's cash, health insurance cash or whoever's cash, when the person goes through that door he or she is coming with money because money will follow the patient.

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