Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Ceann Comhairle is very familiar with this issue. Deputy Higgins's quotation was correct in that I agree with my Senator colleague who stated we should not close any of the services in Monaghan General Hospital until we provide better services in the region. That is what he said and that is the position.

I met the Monaghan action group, the staff and some of the general practitioners from Monaghan General Hospital. They identified a number of services that they wanted to keep. The HSE representatives, whom I met recently, said they were prepared to keep them open until a better service could be agreed. I hope senior members of the HSE can agree on these issues which have been discussed backwards and forwards.

Approximately 15 patients per annum who tend to be extremely ill would be minded better and more safely in Drogheda than in the high dependency unit. There are too few patients to deal with in the latter unit. The clinicians and specialist staff have been clear on this; they have said this is the better way to deal with the issue. They made this clear at a number of meetings and I have read what they said.

On the longer term issue for the region, citizens should have available to them top quality health services that meet their needs within their own region. There is a short-term plan and a longer-term one. I have seen the papers produced by both sides and hope there will be a meeting of minds to reach agreement on the issue. An enormous effort has been made by everybody. Everybody involved means well but the HSE has set out clearly in the documents I have seen the services it will keep in Monaghan until a better service is made available elsewhere in the region.

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