Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for letting me substitute for Deputy Cullinane. I welcome the witnesses. There are a few issues that I wish to raise. If I run out of time, written responses will suffice.

A lot is made of care in the community and we hear about it often. Despite the constant references to how important it is to care for people in their own communities in rural Ireland, district care has been stripped away from localities on a continuous basis. In my own constituency in Country Tipperary, the district hospital, St. Brigid's, was closed down temporarily during the crisis. We were told this was for Covid reasons. Before the decision was made to close it, it had a short-stay unit with palliative, respite and convalescent beds. In the following months during the crisis, there was increased public concern over whether the hospital would reopen at all and if it was being closed by stealth. As it turned out, it was.

It has since been confirmed that the unit will not reopen due to alleged concerns over the suitability of the premises and the standard of care for people. It had been providing this care for decades. This means that the people of Carrick-on-Suir, south Kilkenny and north Waterford and the surrounding areas, who had great affection for St. Brigid's, now face the prospect of having to travel further afield for the services that were provided in their community, as stated in the reports. Despite their best efforts, the Minister has refused to move on the issue. The people of Carrick-on-Suir have been demonstrating every weekend and they will continue to do so. I have no doubt about it.

I wish to ask a number of questions about the decision and how it was arrived at. Despite numerous freedom of information requests being submitted by the community in respect of the engineer's report upon which the decision is said to have been made, we are still waiting for the information to be made available. We have received some reports that it was made available today. In 2018, the HIQA report gave a clean bill of health to the hospital. When was the engineer's report commissioned? I ask that a precise date is provided, if possible. Was it commissioned before the assurances were given last summer? Deputies were given assurances that the hospital would reopen. If the report was commissioned before that, then we were lied to. If it was commissioned after that, I wish to know the precise date on which it was commissioned and who commissioned it. I also request a copy of the report.

How are the hospice beds that were in the hospital going to be replaced? Where are they going to be based and whey will they be available? Have contracts been signed with nursing homes in the area? It seems to us, who have been campaigning on the issue, that it is all about privatising beds and taking from the community. Every one of the reports mentions community-based care, but the beds are being taken away from the community. I am interested to hear if the Minister for Health spoke to officials before the decision was made on the closure of St. Brigid's. A Deputy and a local councillor publicised on social media and the local media in Tipperary that the hospital was going to open, but that decision seems to have been thrown out.

The mental health services aspect of it is another issue of concern. I am sure that is it the same all over the country. However, the provision of mental health services in Tipperary has been affected by the stripping of services away from local communities. St. Michael's was a huge psychiatric unit, which closed in 2012. People were told to go to the overcrowded St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny if they were from the south of the country and those in the north of the county were told to go to Ennis Hospital. I do not know if people realise how large a county Tipperary is to be without any beds. It has since emerged that the HSE itself is willing to pay €300,000 over the next seven years to transfer patients from Clonmel to St. Luke's. Around €700,00 has been spent on the facility as part of the Covid-19 response, and still, no beds are available. With all this money being made available for these purposes, is it not time to invest money in mental health services in a county the size of Tipperary and reopen St. Michael's to some extent so that we have a proper mental health unit in Tipperary? Some people seek to think that mental health issues stop at 5 p.m. and do not affect the patient until 9 a.m. the following morning. Something needs to be done. With that kind of money being spent, something has to change.

Another issue that I wish to raise concerns the Dean Maxwell Nursing Home. It is another facility that has been closed in County Tipperary. We are beginning to wonder if the Department has something against the county. All of these decisions have been made. Everything is being stripped away . All the reports are about community-based care. It is not being delivered. -----