Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The most important thing the Minister has said is that the Government is waiting for the HSE to deliver a plan to it. We in Tipperary and Roscrea all know what the HSE will deliver to us. It will deliver a short-term unit with no long-stay beds. The future of Dean Maxwell is now a clear-cut political decision. The unit is doomed as it is at present unless there is an explicit and clear directive from the Government to the HSE to develop and bring forward a plan that will include a full range of services and long-stay beds for the town of Roscrea. The HSE will not take the initiative to refurbish or to replace Dean Maxwell unless it is directed by the Government to do so. The Minister's Department, as I said, has provided for up to €1 billion for nursing homes. We want to make sure that an adequate portion of that fund is dedicated to Roscrea. Anything less will be a gross political abandonment of Dean Maxwell and the people of Roscrea. I am almost never militant about issues but I am about this. The Government will not take the 25 long-stay beds out of Roscrea in any plan put forward. We want those beds retained. That is our position and there will be no movement from it.

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