Ms Noeleen Moran:

Of course we support the calls for any reports but we just feel there have been enough reports. HIQA identified the same point that the overcrowding was as a result of the fact there was not a model 3 hospital in the region. That then led the university hospital management committee to the long-term objective of exploring the option of a model 3 hospital for the region. That did not come to fruition because the second HIQA report, which followed up on the short-term and medium-term measures, did not report on the long-term measures.

We have had report after report and if that is how the Senator sees a means to an end, by all means commission another report, but can the Senator see my point here? There have been several reports. If they are studied and if the analysis is done on them, the information is already there and we believe HIQA staff are experts in their fields and have identified the issues in those reports. Deloitte, which is commissioned by the management of the hospital, gives a balance to both sides, where you get both views of what is going on here. We completely support anything that leads to the means to the end or that leads to an improvement of the situation, but we just feel there has been report after report and sometimes that can be a bit of a time-wasting exercise in kicking the can down the road. If you study those reports which have already been published, the information exists and is in them and the consultants themselves have raised these matters. I would be very interested in knowing who the clinicians advising the Department of Health are and what their advice is. Perhaps the Senator is in a better position to find out those answers and to determine what they are basing their advice on.