Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My question is to the Minister for Health. As he is well aware, we have a state-of-the-art facility of which the people of Waterford can be proud, the new Dunmore wing of University Hospital Waterford, UHW, which will have 20 beds for the Waterford hospice. For the past 20 years the people of Waterford and the south east have engaged in massive fundraising to endorse €6 million towards this project. Unfortunately, the opening of the new hospice for the south east will be delayed until next year as the HSE has to allocate a budget to hire staff. This information came in reply to a question from Deputy Cullinane earlier in the year. The reply stated that staffing would happen when the budget was allocated.

Once again, people are waiting and, unfortunately, they do not have time to wait when they are dying.

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