Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

I thank the Chair for facilitating me. My questions will not surprise the witnesses.

The Minister of State with responsibility for older people, who I am sure was fully briefed, committed that Nenagh community nursing home would be fully - I stress the word "fully" because we have had a year to staff it - open this month. I am sure he did not mislead the Dáil. I am sure his statement was accurate. My poor mother is in Nenagh Hospital at the moment. A number of people have been left there because they are waiting for that nursing home to open. They need a public nursing home to take them because they have a high level of dependency and unfortunately they cannot really go anywhere else.

On the HIQA report, I will not get into it, but I do not even know why HIQA was asked; it is not its area of competence. It is a good organisation. I do not have any issue with it.

I will not be part of another generation of politicians who say we do not need another hospital - a model 3 hospital at a minimum - in the mid-west. It is a simple as that. The south east has a model 4 hospital and two model 3 hospitals. We have a bigger population and our population is growing at a higher rate than most other regions. I have no issue with building up. I agree with the Minister on bed capacity. I listened earlier and she said "bed capacity in Limerick" and "bed capacity in the mid-west". The model 2 hospitals need to be brought up to standard as well. There is a plan to do that and I support it. However, ultimately, we need a model 3 hospital. If it is going to be done in phases, as I previously outlined to her colleagues, where we are building bed capacity using Limerick accident and emergency department and then wrap a hospital around it or use Nenagh or Ennis, I will support it, but I will fight with every part of my political existence to ensure there is another hospital, because the community in the mid-west has been discriminated against for 20 years. We need another accident and emergency department and another model 3 hospital in the region. It is imperative. It is beyond my comprehension how it cannot be recommended.