Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

The question related to matters over which the Minister has control, namely, the current day-to-day spending increase for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, which is to look after critically ill patients, and whether the capital project for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital has been stopped. When the Minister said there were problems in Cavan and Mullingar did she, on seeing such glaring problems, make herself aware as to the reason for them? What are those problems? I have an idea why they exist but if I were Minister for Health and Children, I would try to do something about them rather than just highlight them as though I were a disinterested party. If she knows what the problems are between those two hospitals, she should inform the House why they exist and explain the difference between Cavan and Mullingar so that we can do something about it, not just point out that there is a difference.

One of the problems with Cavan General Hospital is that the surgeons are restricted in the work they can do. There is no point sending seriously ill people to Cavan General Hospital if the surgeons there cannot operate on them. Having a protocol insisting that every surgical patient from Monaghan goes to Cavan is nonsensical. It does not take a medical professional, administrator or bureaucrat to work that out. It is daft.

See this speech in context