Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

In the last 24 hours, I have spoken to Professor Michael O'Keeffe in Temple Street and Dr. Orla Franklin in Crumlin. Both are pretty horrified at the situation they are facing. Professor O'Keeffe was at pains to point out that he feels the hospital is being penalised for being too efficient and too effective, and that it had too many operations last year. He states that it will be forced to have 1,500 fewer operations this year, yet if a child is waiting 20 weeks for an operation, the hospital is liable to be fined €25,000. He is really frustrated with the bureaucracy. He states that there are too many officers and not enough soldiers, and that we need more people to roll their sleeves up and see patients.

Dr. Orla Franklin is presiding over a hospital in Crumlin that she claims is falling down. It got a brilliant intensive care unit a couple of years ago, but cardiac and cancer care are causing great problems and the hospital does not have the necessary facilities. There is no doubt that a new children's hospital will be great, but Dr. Franklin makes the point that it is for children who are not even born yet. It will be great when it is built, but what about children who are alive today? There are huge problems in Crumlin with infection. The hospital does not have an infection-free environment due to the amount of room sharing that must occur with children, along with parents sleeping on the floors. She stated that bad things are happening to Irish children due to sub-standard facilities. Surely we can do better than this.

See this speech in context