Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I intend to share time with Deputies Terence Flanagan, Deasy, Clune, Connaughton and D'Arcy.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and I commend Deputy Reilly on tabling it. It has raised the profile of this very serious issue. I was with the delegation from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children which visited the Crumlin hospital yesterday. I compliment the board and management on the time they spent with us, the openness of the information provided and on their deep concern for the hospital and its patients. I found the approach of those I met very humane and they expressed a great concern that the service they provide will be affected by the proposed changes.

A Government Deputy welcomed the fact that the planned closure did not take place. However, the reason it did not take place was the HSE approach, that is, to seek volunteers to absent themselves. It sought people to leave voluntarily but could not achieve the appropriate mix. In other words, the response was either all from nurses with no doctors or vice versa. The resulting mix was not right and it was not feasible to implement the planned closure. Those I met made this point very clearly. The intended cutbacks must now take place elsewhere, which, they have indicated, will affect patient services and the treatment of patients.

The hospital management made the point that the hospital, built in 1956, is a voluntary hospital and its operation and that of all voluntary hospitals is derived from public funding. It goes against the whole approach to suggest private funding should be involved. Any voluntary funding is used for research and capital development. These are the reasons such money is collected and why the organisations carry out such fund-raising. To switch such funding for use in the day-to-day running of the hospital is wrong and deceitful.

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