Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

In her response, the Tánaiste talks of the report making adverse conclusions about any individual or institution. With respect, I am accordingly surprised she has not yet seen the report. Has Professor Brendan Drumm had sight of it yet?

The Walsh family, and certainly the people of County Monaghan and the staff at Monaghan General Hospital, will not tolerate scapegoating in this situation. We are very clear on the underlying reasons for the tragic death of Pat Joe Walsh. I am concerned that the Tánaiste says that a fortnight after its publication, while others are having an input, or have been appraised, the Tánaiste has not been appraised.

What is the Tánaiste's proposed course of action now that the report has been published? Has she spoken with the Walsh family, or has the family an understanding of how soon the report will be made available to them?

On a related matter, what can the Tánaiste say to the people of County Monaghan to follow the HSE statement that it cannot guarantee the future of emergency services at Monaghan General Hospital now that we have lost emergency surgery? This is the ongoing drip, drip, drip loss of every crucial element which makes up an acute hospital site, and is a serious matter. What answer has the Tánaiste to the collective appeal of the entire surgical department, all the consultant surgeons in Cavan and Monaghan hospitals in the month prior to the tragic death of Pat Joe Walsh? If that appeal of September 2005 had been acted on and we had the restoration of emergency surgery at Monaghan General Hospital, Pat Joe Walsh could very well be alive today and his family would not have had to suffer the terrible grief visited on it. It is surely time to recognise what is needed. Will the Tánaiste act in the full information now at her disposal? Nobody can be blind to what is now needed.

Where stands the latest of the many reports on hospital services in the north-east commissioned by the HSE? What can the Tánaiste tell us of that?

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