Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I am shocked. Whoever wrote this reply needs to talk to the Letterkenny hospital nursing unions, local journalists and politicians rather than using some strange accounting mechanism to claim all is fine. For the life of me, I cannot understand from where the HSE is getting its figures and claiming everything is hunky dory. It must be a different hospital from the one from which I get reports. The fact remains the hospital was in crisis this winter, particularly after Christmas. This is not the first time.

A multimillion euro long-awaited hospital extension needs to be opened. The Minister of State spoke about it being equipped in the near future. She did not state the Minister and the HSE will commit the financial and personnel resources to the hospital's management to ensure the extension is opened as soon as possible. I appreciate the Minister of State visited the hospital recently and I have much respect for the work she has done in her brief. I hope she will put it to the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, that we need that extension opened as soon as possible. We cannot continue to expect the hospital staff to work under these conditions. More importantly, patients in the hospital deserve to have dignity, privacy and proper standards.

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