Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will look for the facts. The HIQA report does not state anywhere that it is not fit for purpose. It decided it was fit for purpose for a Covid step-down facility as recently as 2020. Imagine that it was fit to be a step-down facility for Covid, with all the associated requirements, and then it was suddenly not. As I said, the 2019 fire report does not state anything. One cannot pick and choose. I am sorry that the witnesses are here before us but what has happened is not acceptable. It is a travesty of justice. As I have said, there is a white elephant. I have seen them in many places. There was one in Cahir. Everybody moved in the day it opened. I do not know what kind of a contract was signed for that building or what kind of a hames was made of it, such that there were no general practitioners. I have seen them built, they moved in and there was buy-in straightaway. I want to arrange a visit to that place if I can.

The equipment was moved out of the hospital in an insulting way shortly after the closure. It was equipment that the good people of Carrick-on-Suir, east Waterford and south Kilkenny had fundraised for. There are many questions. The witnesses know my views on it. They might tell me how they allowed the building there. There is such a thing as planning. If there was forward planning to extend the hospital, it would say that the building is taking up too much of the site. Why was that allowed?