Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I ask the Minister to listen to the point I am going to make. Surely, at a minimum, we should have telephone contact with the office in order that I or Deputy Kelleher or the Minister himself, as public representatives, can call someone in customer service in the medical card centre in Finglas to ask about the current position of an application for a person at the back of the Cooley mountains, in Cork, or wherever. At a minimum, it will take much of the frustration out of the system. The requests for additional information or clarification can be dealt with over the phone. If it is a matter of placing additional administrative staff, I ask the Minister to do this urgently. I believe this would remove much frustration from the system, and I am not asking him to spend additional money on it.

I will become parochial. Just down the road from the Minister are the Cottage Hospital, Drogheda, and St. Joseph's Hospital in Ardee. There are bed reductions at St. Oliver Plunkett Hospital, Dundalk, and St. Mary's Hospital, Drogheda. The smallest county in the country, Louth, has 12,500 people over the age of 65, of whom approximately 5% will require residential care at some stage. The number of beds and facilities that are being taken out of the service is horrendous. I ask the Minister, genuinely, to reconsider the decision.

I will start with St. Joseph's in Ardee. Fortunately, the HSE has a considerable block of land immediately around the hospital, which has three floors. I accept that in this day and age, we have to change the way in which services are provided, having regard to what HIQA may say from time to time. An intensification of services - not necessarily services for the elderly - in that premises, in addition to a sheltered housing development on the adjoining land, is an ideal scenario. It is an ideal place for the establishment of a retirement village and community hospital on one site. Indeed, there is a day care centre at the other end of the land, a mere 100 yards away from the existing hospital. The Cottage Hospital is on the north side of Drogheda town, right in the middle of the population of that side. Many families live within walking distance of the hospital. An intensification of services - palliative, step-down or other services - to increase usage would result in a positive change in the economics of the operation of these hospitals. I ask the Minister for Health to consider what I am saying to him. I ask him, not in a negative way but in a positive way, to examine my suggestions for both sites because of their locations and the strategic importance of the delivery of residential nursing home care. Let us reconsider any decision to close either institution.

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