Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

By extension of Deputy McNamara's point about the politics of all of this, the 2009 decision was the worst political decision that the mid-west region has probably ever faced. There were votes that should have been voted down and there were decisions based on clinical advice that I do not accept and I do not think anyone fully accepts. There was also the lack of capacity building. This centre of excellence that was touted by the then Minister, Mary Harney, at the time, never materialised due to lack of interest and lack of investment. There were a lot of people who could have stepped up to this over the past decade, including a Minister of State I heard speaking earlier, Deputy Shortall, who was Minister of State in the Department of Health during that period.