Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Killeen White. Before I let others in, I will make some points. On behalf of this committee, I express our full appreciation for what the staff down there have done, as well as the wider community in Carrick-on-Suir and counties Kilkenny and Waterford for all the fundraising undertaken through the years to keep St. Brigid's open. In the correspondence we keep getting back from the HSE, and the working committee there, we have on numerous occasions sought reports, including engineers reports, in respect of the HSE standing over the decision to close this facility. Those documents have not arrived and nothing in the opening remarks of Ms Killeen White has given us any further belief that there is something to explain this.

There is an awful lot of opinion involved in some of the decisions taken. I could have an opinion on Dublin Airport and a runway heading one way, but that does not mean I am an expert in what way the aviation industry should operate. I do not, and I do not think anybody here, would stand over a situation where someone had an opinion and then just decided to close the hospital. For those people who may be watching this meeting, if one of the reasons to close St. Brigid's was because it was situated on a floodplain, how in God's name was a couple of million euro spent on building a new primary care centre on the same site? How can the HSE state that the floodplain caused the closure of St. Brigid's hospital but that it will now put in other services on the site and continue on with the attitude of if it gets flooded, it gets flooded? What kind of decisions led to this situation? Where are the reports from any expert on issues with the floodplain, fire hazards or anything? We have looked for them and the committee has looked for them and we have never got them.