Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Her response is actually going backwards from that of her predecessor. The people of Roscrea and the surrounding area will be furious when they see this. Dare I say it but the Minister of State’s own party members are going to be furious. This is just not acceptable. We, collectively, across politics, are going to have to get a plan here. To say that we are gradually going to move to short-stay and that this will not impact on families is not acceptable. The Minister of State’s own colleague, who is the mayor of Tipperary, Councillor Michael Smith, has done some work with me on this and has worked with the council on a plan to build on the site. I have spoken to the chief executive of the council on this and the council is willing to give over land for this, such is its importance to the community.

There is going to be a new capital plan. In that capital plan service provision is going to have to be widened out because we are going to have to look after our elderly in a different way. Can this unit be put on the capital plan? In the past three weeks I have seen what can be achieved. Some €2.4 million is going into the hospital's Assumption grounds for units to look after the elderly in the area. Some €1.4 million is going into the grounds of Nenagh hospital, which I was pleased to tell people about this week. That amounts to €3.9 million. These are all hospital prevention measures and all are designed to look after the elderly in the majority of cases. Here we have Roscrea, again, not getting any form of Government support. Some €4 million was given out in three weeks. I welcome and support this but we have to have a plan. To say that this unit is just going to close to long-stay patients and will not have any such patients is a regression from the position with the former Minister of State and Deputy, Jim Daly, who had a very good meeting with the representatives down there, including the Minister of State’s colleague, Michael Smith, and members of the Roscrea Community Development Council, RCDC, and they were very happy with this. We know that there are deadlines in capital plans and with HIQA but there has to be a new capital plan. It is the Minister of State's and her Government’s decision to choose whether this is going to be on the plan.

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