Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Mullins and Mr. Torpey for being here with us today and for sharing their experience. I welcome all our visitors. It is really important for us, as a committee, to understand the impact on local communities, staff and patients when decisions like these are taken. I thank the witnesses for coming in here to articulate that. They have articulated it very well. It is also important that we hear the rationale from the HSE and HIQA as to why decisions are being made. It is very clear that the decision was not made on the basis of care. All of the testimony that we have heard and even the reports we have seen show that the care being given was second to none, but it seems the decision was made on the basis of the building. That is why it is so great that there are health and safety and engineering experts on the campaign team. I have no doubt that they have the skills to be able to suggest to the HSE ways to go about getting around issues and rectifying things. I must say that I am really glad that the building is still in use as a healthcare facility. That is really important for two reasons: first, because of the care and services being given to the local community and, second, because it is still a live building. It is still a building we can invest in and make long-term strategies for. This is the public petitions committee. It is not necessarily the committee to look at those kinds of long-term strategies, but I think we have the opportunity to collaborate with the Joint Committee on Health, which does a lot of work in this area in terms of healthcare strategy and HSE operations. I am not sure if the group has corresponded with or attended meetings of the Joint Committee on Health, but I think it is something to look at because that is where these decisions and the policies around them emanate from. I thank the group not only for successfully petitioning this committee, but also for gathering 11,000 signatures for its own petition. That shows the strength of the campaign it has put together. I thank the witnesses for that.