Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this timely debate on a motion tabled by the new Fine Gael spokesperson on health, Deputy Reilly. I congratulate him on his initiative. As a medical doctor, his experience will be invaluable. Deputy Reilly has already taken up my invitation to visit Ennis tomorrow, to see at first hand the state of the health services there. He will be meeting consultants and hospital managers and will be told how a mammography unit located at Ennis General Hospital has been decommissioned.

The Minister announced yesterday that services at 13 hospitals throughout the country will be closed. I hope she is aware that the mammography service at Ennis has been closed since last October and women in County Clare have to travel to Galway and Limerick to be screened. Geographical factors in west Clare are such that women must travel long distances to Limerick Regional Hospital to avail of the service. The distance between Kilbaha or Carrigaholt to Limerick Regional Hospital is 80 miles. There is a taxi service but it costs a great deal of money and there is no bus or other public transport service to take women to the hospital. We all know one cannot park one's car at the hospital. If the HSE concentrates all its resources into centres of excellence, people will have to wait a long time to avail of services. Unfortunately, the Minister does not realise this.

I spoke to a woman in Kilbaha two weeks ago when this issue was raised. She asked why this development was to affect the people of west Clare and why they were to become more disadvantaged than anyone else. The mayors and Oireachtas Members of County Clare had a meeting with the Minister last week, during which she spoke of mammography services and her intentions regarding the roll-out of BreastCheck. She said last week she would be in a position within a week or so to announce when BreastCheck services would be available for County Clare. If she is present to sum up this afternoon, will she make this announcement?

The health services in County Clare are in chaos and there has been a continual downgrading thereof. The county has a growing population of more than 100,000. In the 1980s there were 122 beds in Ennis General Hospital and there are now 88. We have lost maternity services and we are now losing our cancer services. We were told last week the 24 accident and emergency beds in Ennis General Hospital will be a thing of the past when the model the Minister proposes comes into place.

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