Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The issue at hand is that Friends of University Hospital Kerry has raised millions of euro for University Hospital Kerry over the years. I commend the group. Deputy Ferris knows those concerned as well as I do. They are ordinary, decent, hard-working people from Tralee and all around County Kerry who have supported the hospital under the umbrella of the group. They have done trojan work and picked up the slack of the current and previous Governments, which have let them down. They have raised millions of euro for much-needed equipment for our hospital in County Kerry. One item of equipment for which the group provided funding was a DEXA scanner. The scanner was staffed for a while but unfortunately it now lies idle. Patients now have to travel to Cork or pay privately to have their scans carried out privately in Bon Secours Hospital, Tralee. We are very grateful the latter hospital is in the county also. It provides an excellent service. Why, however, is a vital piece of medical equipment lying idle? The Department of Health has so many Ministers, including the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, much as we may like him, that one would nearly want a stick to wave at all of them. With the mismanagement of taxpayers' money, we cannot staff the vital piece of machinery, which was paid for through fund-raising by Friends of University Hospital Kerry. It has been lying idle for four years. There has been inaction by the current and previous Ministers and the HSE. It is disgraceful and disrespectful to the people of Kerry and the staff of the hospital, who would gladly man the equipment if they were allowed to do so.

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