Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Mary Butler for tabling this matter, contacting all of us and organising it. I was glad to sign it. We do not know where we are. We need 24-7 cardiac and emergency care. The Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, agrees and is fighting very hard for it. I know how hard he has fought at Cabinet and with the Minister as well as during the talks on the programme for Government. We in the south east are not second-class citizens and will not accept that status. The War of Independence was started in Tipperary and we are proud of that. Where Tipperary leads, Ireland follows and we are entitled to health care which is as good as that available anywhere else in the country. There are 780 patients waiting at the moment. They are sick people who have been referred for this treatment. I welcome the mobile cath lab, but I do not have a lot of meas in it. It will certainly deal with the backlog, but we still need a second cath lab in Waterford. If it takes all of us to come back and put down a motion as members of Fianna Fáil or as Independents to force the Government, we should do that. It is a downright insult, without any disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, that the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, is not here today.

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