David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It depends on how you look at it but it is somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 people. It is a minimum of 400,000 up to 500,000, depending on the catchment area. If the mid-west region had two emergency departments, it would mean the population per emergency department would be 200,000. If we take, for example, the south west, it has four emergency departments with one emergency department for 185,000. I can go through all the other regions. On population alone, if there was a second emergency department, this would bring the region in line with other areas. I say that to the Minister in terms of the HIQA review. There is a question of whether the review is just looking at whether it is needed as opposed to where the location should be. I know there is a need for a clinical underpinning of it as well. I wanted to make that point.

I have one last question. I will be careful how I raise this because I do not comment on individuals as I do not think it is fair to do so. However, there is a report in The Irish Times today about a former manager of the hospital who was appointed to a new role as a new integrated healthcare area manager in the mid-west. There was a line in the article which troubled me. Will the Minister confirm this and then perhaps elaborate as to why this was the case? The articles states: "It is understood she was among a small group offered such posts outside of a public competition". First, will the Minister explain why that happened and why it was done outside of a public competition? Was past performance of any individual - not just of one individual but of any individual - who was offered these posts taken into account? The family of Aoife Johnston are far from happy with that; I put this to the Minister because I am aware of it. I will leave the remaining time for him to respond to that.