Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis na daoine go léir ag obair in St. Joseph's Hospital. I thank and compliment the staff, including the people at the doors, consultants, management, nurses, front-line staff and everybody else for the work they do in appalling conditions. The last thing they want is a diatribe such as the Minister of State read out. He knows in his heart and soul, having sat over here three or four years ago, that he would not have accepted it. The Minister is in hiding and would not come here to talk to us. He can run but he cannot hide. He saw Cashel hospital and the splendid conditions there and refused to open a bed there. We know we will not have the money to staff it. We cannot get staff for the children's hospital or anywhere else. I believe the Minister of State is going to Nicaragua on St. Patrick's Day. I do not know where the man beside him, the Minister, Deputy Ross, is going, but wherever the two of them go, they should go on a one-way ticket and not come back because they are propping up this disastrous Fine Gael Government which is wreaking havoc on the people and does not care about ordinary people. Off with the two of them. I hope they will not get a return ticket because they are destroying rural Ireland single-handedly. When they were in opposition here, they would do everything, and now they do nothing. Reading out the diatribe is a scandal and the Minister of State knows that.

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