Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is not completely an IR issue, it is a fact that the hospital does not have enough nurses, and the Department of Health needs to acknowledge that, as does the HSE. It is all very well to say the hospital will turn down the request for nurses, but I ask the Minister at least to engage at a level at which we will have a decision sometime soon because the place cannot take it at the moment.

I thank the Minister for his reply. When the decision was made to create the hospital as it is in Cashel, we were promised 25 geriatric assessment unit beds, 20 rehab beds, 15 nursing home convalescent beds, a palliative care unit, etc., so the Minister knows why the people are concerned and do not necessarily believe this will happen. What happens in Dundalk and Drogheda works well. The clinicians in Clonmel have a concern about going to Cashel - I understand that - but clinicians are only one part of the equation. We need to have a plan in which the people will believe, so I ask the Minister to not alone stress the importance of this matter to the HSE, which he has done, but also to publish a plan for this. I am anxious to know where the funds will come from. We need a plan, and I encourage him to publish one. Not alone that, I ask him to do us the service of meeting-----

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