Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. I wanted to clarify it. There have been numerous meetings and the Department has been good at facilitating the cancer groups in Donegal in that regard. However, meetings seems to be all we have had. In January 2016, it was announced that a second breast cancer surgeon had been approved for Letterkenny University Hospital and that recruitment would start immediately, but it is now May 2017 with no sign of him or her coming. At one stage last year, there was only one general surgeon in Letterkenny Hospital. That was the cancer surgeon who also does general surgery, as the Minister said. When a surgeon was recruited, two days of surgery were provided in the period of three months in the hospital. This is the kind of thing that is going on. While it is good that meetings are happening, we are not seeing any progress outside of the meetings. Nothing is happening.

The Saolta group has been preparing the business case for the recruitment of an endocrinologist for over two years at this stage. We are still no further on. It is impossible to escape the point that while words are being said, nothing is happening. I wonder if the creation of the Saolta group means services are being concentrated in Galway and that hospitals like Letterkenny will be left behind. That is the realisation to which many people are starting to come.

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