Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing us to raise this Topical Issue this evening. It is a very important issue. The Minister has been down to Cashel in Tipperary. He saw the wonderful unit in the old Our Lady's which is lying idle; €23 million was spent on it and there is not a bed inside it. There are managers galore but not a bed. The Minister told me he would do something, yet he has done nothing. Deputy Butler lives in Dungarvan and I am 20 miles away in Newcastle. South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel is in the middle of the two, about 20 miles from each place. It is unbelievable. There is bedlam every day of the week on the corridors. It is a retrograde step. It is only an excuse for the HSE to say it cannot get nurses. There are plenty of managers there to get nurses. They have had plenty of time to get them. The HSE is telling us this is only temporary in the Sacred Heart in Dungarvan and in Cashel. We lost a ward in Cashel already when it was transferred to the back of Our Lady's. We lost 12 respite beds for women when that transfer occurred. We hoped it would be a modern, new facility, which it is, but we lost 12 respite beds in the system in south Tipperary. Many of the people in west Waterford come to Clonmel and Ardkeen. They get their procedures in Clonmel under awful pressure. They cannot be released because there is no place to which to be discharged. This is total madness. Is the Minister going to allow himself to be captured by the officials? I do not say that lightly. I wished the Minister well in his position but the officials are ruling the roost and doing a damn bad job of it. The Minister can smile all he likes. Closing respite beds is madness; it contributes to the problem. There is a wonderful facility in the Sacred Heart in Dungarvan and a wonderful facility in St Patrick's in Cashel under Mary Prendergast, who is doing her best. Officialdom is ruling the roost. There are dozens of officials in the new hospital where €21 million was spent but not a bed. It is a bed-free zone and a patient-free zone. The Minister said he would do something about it but he has done nothing. It will cause chaos coming into summer. It will cause absolute chaos when it comes to the winter because these beds in Dungarvan have been lost and we will lose 15 to 18 further respite beds on top of the 12 we have lost already in St Patrick's in Cashel. Where have people to go? Will they go on the streets or the roads? This is pathetic. It is ineptitude by the HSE. It is scandalous. Temporary measures will not work because they are not temporary. Nothing is temporary with the HSE. The only thing permanent with the HSE are the managers and lazy bureaucracy.

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