Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I welcome the fact the pause button has been pressed and that we have moved away from the Dr. Susan O'Reilly plan. Consultations, however, can go on and on. I agree with the Minister that the consultation process needs to be extensive and meaningful, but it was announced five months ago. In answer to a parliamentary question that I asked in January the Minister said the process would begin early this year. The can has been kicked down the road a lot and it has been kicked from one election to the next. It is important to move on with it. In reply to a Dáil question on 27 March the Minister said "I have asked my Department to conduct a consultation process in this regard involving local clinicians and the community and this is currently under consideration." We now need to move on with the consideration part and progress on to the action part. This is important. When the Taoiseach was in Mountmellick last week he said he did not envisage any closure, downgrade or significant reduction in services at the hospital because it just would not work as Tullamore and Tallaght hospitals would not be in a position to deal with the extra patients from Portlaoise hospital. This is what the Taoiseach said last Friday in Mountmellick.

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