Mr. Bernard Gloster:

There are two parts to the question. I want to take this opportunity to apologise to the people in the area for what happened and how they found out. To be fair to the chief officer there, people were doing the best they could. On a previous occasion, admissions had to cease temporarily due to difficulties in staffing shifts. Everybody felt, that being the case this time, it would be regrettable but okay. Clearly, it became a matter of serious public concern. I want to apologise for that. I say that sincerely.

I have no lack of value whatsoever in the service. I am not aware that the recruitment pause measures have affected the ability to staff the service. Sometimes it is very hard to staff particular facilities. I spoke with the regional executive officer at the weekend and again this morning to confirm that the intention is to get the service back to full operation as rapidly as possible. If there was any question of the pause affecting that or the jobs the service had already approved, I can assure the Senator that would be dealt with. As I said, I do not think it is just that.

Our ambition is to get the service up and running again and to keep it open until such time as all of the proper arrangements that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, had committed to are in place. Given its use for respite, in particular supporting palliative and end-of-life care, it is not reasonable for us to expect people to have to go the distance to Galway, which is already congested. I am not in any way defending the position. There will be nothing short at my end in terms of getting the service open again. That is not because there is an outcry. There was, rightly, an outcry. The situation is regrettable. I want to be fair to the chief officer there. He was doing the best he could with what he had.