Mr. Philip McAnenly:

Senator van Turnhout asked questions around the quality of the facilities. It is interesting to note that in the history of health care provided at Mount Carmel Hospital there was never one incident of MRSA, which has plagued our health services elsewhere. Since 24 January, I have spent up to 14 hours per day on-site at the hospital trying to support staff and going through the redundancy procedures, etc. It is vexing to see the excellent facilities that are there. As nurses, both I and my colleague have worked in public health care facilities over the years that were not a patch on what we have seen in Mount Carmel. It is a fantastic facility. The buildings are pristine, with many single rooms and two-bed rooms, all en suite and all available today for use by the public, yet they have been closed.
Senator Burke asked if staff were made aware of the financial situation at the hospital. Each of the unions involved, including our union, would have worked very closely with both the previous management of the hospital and the interim management since NAMA acquired the assets to effect cost savings to try to ensure the future of the hospital. We would have introduced all the cost-saving measures civil and public servants endured under the Haddington Road agreement. Staff would have worked the additional hours for no added pay. Staff would have lost premium earnings, as did staff in the civil and public service. All those cost-saving measures were introduced in an effort to secure the future of the hospital.
In addition, we engaged with management in effecting a round of redundancies at the hospital last year but we were moving in a direction that led us to believe, and we were being informed by the interim managers, that we were moving closer and closer to a break-even point with every passing day. We were looking forward to 2014 when the full values of those cost savings would be measured in the annual budget and where we would have been operating a hospital that would have had close to 100% occupancy. We have no doubt based on the accounts and the figures that were presented to us regularly and at the monthly - and sometimes more frequently than that - meetings with management that the hospital would have moved into profitability in 2014.
Deputy Mathews mentioned that the Minster has repeatedly stated that the birth rate has peaked. That may be the case and that may be for reasons due to legislative changes over the years, but it is also a fact that the masters of each of the three Dublin maternity hospitals have repeatedly reported that they are operating at more than 30% above the optimum level or their desired or ideal capacity level. It is a red herring to refer to declining birth rates.