Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Last night the deputy leader of Fine Gael talked at length about his reasons for pushing ahead with the removal of services from Roscommon hospital, and signalled that this will continue with other hospitals. He said he was startled by the quality of treatment at the hospital, although to be startled is an odd reaction given the fact every single one of the issues he mentioned was fully known to him last February.

Fine Gael repeatedly told the people of Roscommon that it had the solution, for example, to the NCHD issue. The only things that have actually changed since then are that the Minister, Deputy Reilly, has taken personal responsibility for the HSE and the Department has underspent its budget by about €40 million. Yesterday we had the remarkable spectacle of the Taoiseach going as far as to deny having made any commitments to smaller hospitals. His problem, of course, is that it only takes about five minutes research to show that making promises to hospitals was a core campaign tactic of Fine Gael in Roscommon and throughout the country during the election, and in the past few years.

For example, the Taoiseach personally gave assurances relating to services in Ennis on 7 February, he gave assurances on services in Nenagh on 4 February, and in Cork on 18 February he said he had a list of hospitals whose services Fine Gael would protect. With regard to Sligo, which we discussed yesterday, he should look at the record of this House, where his name is signed under a motion demanding that services there be protected and retained. As Deputy Feighan said at the launch of Fine Gael's Roscommon campaign: "With us, James Reilly and Enda Kenny, the future of Roscommon hospital will be secure because we are telling the truth".

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