Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The fine people of south Tipperary are not alone in not understanding it because I do not understand it either. I did not make the decision in 2007, and neither did the Deputy, that the site at Cashel should be exclusively used for primary and social care. I am sure he wants to acknowledge, as I do, the hard work that is ongoing there. We had an opportunity to speak to the people who work there, and I acknowledge their work, but there is spare capacity in Cashel to do more. The Deputy can say correctly that people have heard this before, but what they have not heard before is that I as Minister for Health expect more to be done in Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel, that I have instructed the HSE to come up with a plan to do more and that the HSE has now come back with what I believe are the beginnings of a plan which sees the potential to do more in Cashel, particularly in day hospital, day assessment and diagnostic care and care of the elderly. This is in addition, as the Deputy said, to the additional measures that need to be taken in Clonmel, some of which are already funded in the winter initiative. As a former member of the Committee of Public Accounts, I welcome the fact that the committee will explore this issue. Regarding the industrial relations issue, while I note the Deputy's concerns, a process is ongoing through the IR mechanism and I do not wish to comment on that.

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