Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to come back in. The Committee on Petitions is for the general public. With no disrespect to Deputy Devlin, I take offence at the suggestion it is political. We have three Government party members who are also working to save that centre. Whether he is using “political” as in politically motivated or as referring to the Opposition, I have been on the record in my own town of Midleton, with the other Deputies in east Cork, to say that we would not be politicising it and we will not play party politics on it because it is a local issue about local services. I want that on the record. That is why I think it is the important to get the witnesses in.

I understand where the Deputy is coming from in regard to the HSE and it will get its turn too. However, the Committee on Petitions is open to every single citizen in the country and they can come in and at least ask for their voices to be heard. That is the point I was trying to make. It certainly will not be political points scoring. I am not on the media about it as much as others. I will go on the record and say it here again. I have reminded people at previous meetings of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health that there are three Members fighting for the same thing who sit in the present Government and I have not been throwing anything that is inappropriate. As I said at this committee a while ago, this committee is very different. We can put politics aside to address local issues and to help everybody. That is the way it should be. That is my take on it.