Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the very important issue of three community hospitals in Donegal - St. Joseph's Community Hospital in Stranorlar, Lifford Community Hospital and Ramelton Community Hospital. This matter has been ongoing for some years. It first arose in January 2016 when the then Government thought it was unveiling a capital plan for hospitals. We discovered at the time that there was no money in the capital plan for these three hospitals. The Government realised in the course of the general election campaign that something had gone wrong and that was not what the Government intended. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, who was a Minister of State at the time, stated that the matter was so serious that the then Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, would begin an investigation. The investigation has now gone on longer than any tribunal and we have never been informed of the outcome.

There have been numerous announcements by Ministers of State over the time, including Deputies Jim Daly and McHugh, but there has been very little progress. We had a meeting here last year and it was promised that we would meet the Minister for Health, the Secretary General and the chief officers of the HSE but that never happened. The Minister of State at the Department of health, Deputy Jim Daly, attended that meeting and gave what he thought was good news but nothing has happened since. It was stated at the time that there would be regular contact with the action group but there has been none.

We want to stop the nonsense and put in place a strategy to proceed with the development, refurbishment and extension of these three hospitals.

See this speech in context