Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I am not familiar with the reason the orthopaedic facility was withdrawn from Bantry General Hospital, but I assume it related to staffing levels and safety issues. I visited the hospital some time ago. It is efficient and I was particularly taken with how various staff members seemed to work well together at the local level. Government policy is to have services provided as close as possible to where people live, particularly in a region as peripheral as Cork South-West, which Deputy Sheehan represents, but it must be done on the basis of safety.

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