Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for coming in and thank members for allowing me to pop in to find out some more information about this issue. Before I put some questions to Ms Mullins and Mr. Torpey, I will make a general comment. When a community loses a hospital like this without any consultation whatsoever and then goes to the trouble of achieving the impressive feat of collecting 11,000 signatures, it does politics enormous damage if there is not some kind of accountability. It is clear the action group has the support of its local representatives, which is very important and credit is due to all of them. As well as communities, politics loses when there is no accountability about why such an important facility is lost to a local community.

I want to learn a little more about what has happened here. The first question that strikes me is what people are to do now. Unfortunately, I imagine most of us in this room have lost loved ones. I certainly know the importance of having a good respite facility and the privacy and space that people need. We have heard that some of these people now have to go to private, for-profit nursing homes. With the best will in the world, that is an entirely different type of experience. Will the witnesses tell us a little more about the impact of this on the local community? What was communicated to the local community? When was it first told about the future of St. Brigid’s? What information did the group look for? I gather there was quite a problem getting information from the HSE. I understand the group had to contact the Information Commissioner at one point. I would like to hear a little more on those points, if possible.