Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

In Louth and Monaghan, the hospitals are suffering death by a thousand cuts. If services are removed and if the proper appointments are not made at the appropriate times, then a hospital can become unsafe. The responsibility of a government is to make a hospital safe. A mark of any society is that citizens - we are citizens, not subjects - have the right of access to wrap-around health care. The Taoiseach used the phrase "small hospital". Who defines that term? If a citizen is ill, he or she should have access to first class primary health services. This is a small State. We have half the population of London. The Taoiseach is governing the USA.

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