Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Tánaiste knows, Letterkenny General Hospital was devastated by a flood last July. A total of 40% of the floor space of the hospital was contaminated by flood water. The response from the staff and management as those flood waters were coming into the accident and emergency department and the rest of the hospital was nothing short of heroic. The heroism shown by the staff and management has continued since then with the extra hours they have had to work and the establishment of temporary departments.

Prior to the flood, Deputy Pearse Doherty and I revealed that based on the number of inpatients going through the hospital per year, Letterkenny General Hospital had the lowest hospital budget in the State and the lowest number of allocations of medical staff. Again and again, patients had suffered in Donegal because of this injustice. As I speak, there is once again a crisis at the hospital's accident and emergency department. Such is the extent of that crisis that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said they are the worst conditions it has seen in 15 years. Patients across the county are being diverted to Sligo Regional Hospital.

I ask the Tánaiste to state whether the Government will remove the moratorium and allow the management of Letterkenny General Hospital to allocate the necessary nurses and medical staff to run the hospital effectively. Will it meet the heroism of the staff who have worked unbelievable hours in unbelievable conditions to keep that hospital going halfway and give them an additional allocation of staff to help them to do their jobs?

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