Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Tom Hayes, Deputy Healy and I waited for hours to meet the Minister but he left us standing in the yard and never met us. He has not met the Oireachtas Members from South Tipperary once since he took office. That is a shame on him. Under the last Government, which I supported, we had regular meetings with the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harney, at least every six months, sometimes quarterly. The present Minister has not met us once. When he has met us in the corridor he has said he will meet us or do this or that but he has never brought us into his office, or sat down to meet us in any office. The same happens with senior management in South Tipperary. It does not engage with me as it used to do quarterly under the last Government, with the local Members and the then Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh.

We are in a vacuum. I have received calls telling me that yesterday there were 19 people on trolleys and 15 today. On other days there have been 28. That is the second highest number in the country compared with Beaumont Hospital or Cork University Hospital, which have four times as many beds. It is not because the front-line staff are not doing their job. They work very hard. It is a crisis in Clonmel, South Tipperary. Front-line staff cannot cope. The Minister just rubs his hands and makes glib remarks and does not even have the interest to meet the Members or engage with senior management. I do not know whether the Minister has instructed the senior management not to engage with us. People call me with harrowing stories about people on trolleys for two or three days. A few nights ago there was a woman there whose oxygen container was empty. That is third world standard. There is no room. I will be forced to call in the Health Information Quality Authority, HIQA, and the Health and Safety Authority, HSA. Worst of all I was asked last Sunday night to call in the fire officer because it is dangerous, unsafe and unwise for patients, families, staff and everybody else to be there.

The Minister can sit and smile all he likes but this is a Third World, primitive situation. The Minister should hang his head in shame at leaving it as it is. Then he talks about free GP care for under-fives. He is in a world of delusion and illusion. I challenge him to give me a date, as soon as possible, when he will visit the hospital, and an earlier date when he will meet the Members elected from South Tipperary, or indeed all of Tipperary and part of west Waterford as well. I challenge the Minister to do that, across the floor of the House because it is no good writing to him or asking him because he will only laugh and talk about it. What is happening is an outrage. I heard a Deputy from Roscommon ask this morning what happened about the Bills last night. The Government is robbing Peter to pay Paul. I salute the front-line staff for the work they do under appalling pressure. I acknowledge that the Minister allowed the recruitment of some nurses recently. The pressure is on sick people – and most people do not go into hospital unless they are very sick. Some go in at weekends as a result of drinking but they should be segregated and put somewhere else because they are annoying and frightening and the security staff have to keep them away from everybody else, from the ordinary sick people, especially those who are old. It is an indictment of the Minister, who is a qualified medical person and has taken the Hippocratic Oath, that he would allow such conditions to continue in any hospital but above all in our hospital in South Tipperary. I challenge the Minister to meet the Tipperary Members to discuss it at first hand. I further challenge him to come back and not run away as fast as Cromwell ran out of Clonmel. We hunted him. The Minister was welcome to stay but he will not be welcome again if he does not have some respect for the elected representatives and the people of South Tipperary.

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