Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brassil for bringing to my attention the issue in regard to the chest walk-in clinic and the ultrasound. I will revert to him directly and I will talk to the chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, in that regard. I was not familiar with this issue. I know Mr. Reid was in University Hospital Kerry yesterday to meet hospital management and hospital group management, so he should have a good update on it. I will come back to the Deputy on the matter, if not today, then in the morning.

In regard to Deputy Healy-Rae, just because he says something does not mean it is true. If he wants to support the staff and the very highly qualified professionals in that hospital, I do not think he should be suggesting they are working in a community nursing unit. It is a university hospital, providing an excellent service, and there are no plans whatsoever to downgrade it. Not only are there no plans to downgrade it, we plan to increase its capacity further, expand the number of beds and make it even busier.

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