Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister travelled to UHL last Thursday, which was very much appreciated in the region, he made a journey but the management of UHL also made a journey to the hospital because in the past year or two they upped sticks from the hospital campus. They moved their offices to about 2 km away. They are no longer based in the hospital. Before I was a Deputy, I was a teacher. I have never heard of a school principal based outside a school. I have never heard of a Garda inspector or sergeant based a 1 km away from their station. It is unbelievable for a hospital system, in particular, UHL and its surrounding hospitals, that have been at crisis point so many times in the past two years. It is unthinkable. It is unbelievable.

It is unfathomable that the management personnel would be based in an industrial estate in an office block up the road from the acute services of a hospital. There cannot be proper oversight if management is based remotely, away from the hospital. The Minister will probably say that is an operational matter with which he cannot interfere. He has got to. These are the helms people of UL Hospitals Group. I ask that the Minister and the Department at least write or talk to them to say that the Minister has major concerns because they are not based in the hospital campus and tell them to get back down there again. That oversight is needed.

We have heard stories over the years of when there were ministerial visits. I do not know what happened on the Minister's visit, but I know when the Minister, Deputy Harris, visited years ago, trolleys were brought to the morgue corridor. They were pushed there - out of sight, out of mind. No problems here. We got back to normality again because this place is really well managed. They need to be on site. I ask that the Minister intervene in this.

I have one final issue that perhaps the Minister would wrap up with in his response. During Covid, some services were stripped back from local health centres such as those in Broadford and Kilrush, County Clare. Dental services are no longer provided. They must be reinstated. I hope the Minister will wrap up some of these issues in the time we have left.