Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for coming in today. I am from Shannon so you can imagine the issues we have there. To us, the disastrous decision that was made in 2009 has unfortunately played out. It would be remiss of me not to mention Aoife Johnston, who was needlessly lost to her community and her family. Unfortunately, since then we have needlessly lost another young lady from Shannon in the hospital.

As the witnesses can imagine, when this HIQA report came out people were disappointed and angry. They said they probably could have written it themselves. They were annoyed that it offered options rather than setting out A, B and C. Do the witnesses agree that a lack of infrastructure is causing the deaths of people in the mid-west and that infrastructure needs to be put in place? Could crisis and emergency plans be implemented to expedite this? We know it can be done because a private hospital was built in Limerick in 16 months. We just need the political will to do it.

We have agreed, as already said, to sign a letter that will go to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Hopefully A, B and C will be implemented. Do the witnesses believe implementing A, B and C is feasible and would alleviate things in the long term? Why are we talking about the short term? We need to look at the long term; we need to look at the future. Would the witnesses say A, B and C would be feasible?