Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their submissions. I will come at the matter from probably a different angle, that is, staffing and capital development.

The delegates said they needed A Vision for Change to be completed. What are the outstanding aspects that need to be completed?

We talked about nurses. The issues they face constitute a huge challenge across all sectors. We see members of the Army and the Air Corps signing up as pilots. We are losing nurses to other areas. What can we do that will be effective? It is very frustrating that people are trained to a certain level and then, because of market forces, they move away. What exactly is therapeutic grade?

We face a huge difficulty in the appointment of consultants. Most come from the United Kingdom. There was a pay cap. Do the delegates know how it affected the the appointment of consultants? I know that it had an effect in some places and there was no way around it. It was something for which everyone was calling when the country was effectively broke, but it was introduced without any flexibility. Is it having an effect? Capital projects and providing new buildings are the least of our problems; it is how one staffs them. I found that if one employed people locally in other professions - let us say, for one facility - their career prospects would be somewhat limited. I refer to a local hospital, Roscommon University Hospital. In the Saolta group we could not find nurses, doctors or, especially, consultants. We brought them in under the Saolta group. The group employs everyone in counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Donegal and Sligo and it seems to have worked a lot better, but the delegates are probably saying there is also a need for flexibility.

I must again raise a legacy issue in County Roscommon. If the delegates know it, they will know that the mental health services are not fit for purpose. Five years ago there was a €20 million investment and the provision of an endoscopy unit which cost €7 million or €8 million. We have the rehab unit for the west and an eight-bed palliative care unit. We wanted to go straight back out and effectively build a brand new mental health service. We were waiting six months, but they came back and said no and told us that it would inconvenience staff and patients. However, five years later, after all of the various developments, people are calling for a new building. As a politician, I am really frustrated that we could not receive the co-operation of the HSE, as it has cost us millions. We have built the endoscopy unit and are now trying to build around it. When the funding was available, we just could not receive co-operation and I do not know who to blame.