Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious issue and we should not be fighting over it. The Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, should be careful for what he wishes. Christmas has gone and the turkeys have come home to roost, but he never knows what is coming.

The Higgins and Herity reports are HSE spin. I am not castigating the people who produced the reports but what is important are the questions they asked, the lead-in they had and the feed-in they got from patients. The officials who have now captured the Minister, Deputy Harris and the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy are control freaks.

Some 500,000 people in the south east are not less decent and do not deserve less respect than those in Dublin 4 and the leafy suburbs. We are their representatives and messenger boys, and are here to carry the message that we are entitled to a second cath lab.

We welcome the mobile unit. Perhaps we should take the wheels off it and see whether we can keep it in Waterford before it is moved Dublin or elsewhere because of shortages. I do not accept the reply of the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy. The Minister, Deputy Harris, should be here because this is his place. He is probably sitting in his office with officials watching the debate and will say I was very hard on him. I will be hard on him. He has had his honeymoon. He is accountable to the people of the south east and he must sit up and listen.

See this speech in context