John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I was present on the day the then Minister, Deputy Reilly, described it as a second CT scanner for Waterford. He told us it would provide improved access to patients for CT diagnostic services and that Waterford would finally have two CT scanners based on the fact that over 16,500 examinations were carried out in 2014. The new scanner was ready for use in 2014 but the machine did not come into operation until April 2015. We have been repeatedly informed that the delay was down to the hospital not being able to provide additional nursing staff. Since then, no additional resources have been made available for the new machine and, instead, staff who worked with the old machine have been redeployed. If this was the intention in the first instance, can the Minister explain the 15-month delay in getting the new machine into operation? Does he think it is value for taxpayers' money to have a perfectly working machine gathering dust in the basement of University Hospital Waterford?

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