Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I appreciate his forbearance and his allowing me and the other Members to contribute early. I welcome our guests. I am not going to comment on the situation in the west; I will stick to St. Brigid's, if the Cathaoirleach does not mind. We have heard it all before. The facility, with its 16 beds, including three palliative care beds and respite beds, has been closed. We are not being given any coherent reasons for the closure. Reference has been made to the HIQA report of 2018, which stated the standards were not reached and to other reports issued thereafter. However, how could the premises be deemed suitable for a Covid step-down facility? It does not add up. It is not honest, transparent or anything else.

A colleague of mine, Councillor Kieran Bourke, came up here and met the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, with Deputy Cahill. I was not at the meeting. The Minister assured them that the facility would reopen after Covid. Then, all of a sudden, it was decided it was not suitable. If we cannot trust the word of a Minister given to a colleague face to face, who is running the Department of Health and the HSE? The councillor went home and told people in good faith what he was told by the Minister for Health. I met him that night. I was not at the meeting with the Minister - I was not asked to it - but that is what happened.

Mr. Ryan has mentioned that the staffing resource of St. Brigid's was needed to help out during Covid, and he also mentioned community services. There was heaps of room in the white elephant of a building beside it, or whatever you want to call it. It was three quarters empty. Why did the HSE have to make a community centre out of a wonderful, beautiful, well-managed facility? Mr. Ryan said it is of its time. Of course it is of its time but it has stood the test of time well and has been upgraded. There were renovations and fundraising by people, including the families that really benefited from it. We had a meeting last Monday week on palliative care beds for south Tipperary, specifically for Clonmel. One man broke down talking about his wife's last weeks in the hospice. There were top-class people there. If the HSE can pull those beds, as well as the other ones, where is the humanity and understanding? There was considerable fundraising at wakes and on various other occasions, and there were donation boxes. I am referring not only to families related to those receiving palliative care but to ordinary families whose loved ones spent their last days in the facility and who got respite through it. The money has not been returned to the fundraising committee. The last time we asked about it, we heard a mechanism was being devised to get it back. The community did not want it back; they wanted their hospital and beds.

Mr. Ryan's report today is just another whitewash job. There is no truth or honesty. The people need the facility. Three hospice beds are lost. Mr. Ryan mentioned that a 50-bed unit is under construction in Clonmel. We are told, to our horror, that it can have only one hospice bed and no ancillary room. There is one family room for all 50 patients. They will have the same right to access as the hospice care patient. It is an insult to the people of Clonmel. Having done considerable fundraising over the decades, they are furious. They have funds and are fundraising. If they only had rooms, they would kit them out themselves, as people have done all over the country in wonderful hospices. It is a whitewash – nothing but a tissue of untruths.