Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The audacity of Mr. Watt and indeed the Minister for Health to go to Dubai to look at best practices during Covid speaks for itself and shows how out of touch they are.

My good friend and the Minister of State's former colleague, the former Minister of State, Máire Hoctor, did her very best to keep Nenagh accident and emergency department open. She was hounded out of office by Deputy Kelly and others who attacked her at the time. We have to go back and revisit and open Nenagh accident and emergency department, which was a perfect unit. We also have to open St. John's accident and emergency department again as an interim solution until we get a new building that is capable of dealing with the number of patients from north Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and beyond. South Tipperary General Hospital has an overflow of people coming in now because they cannot get into Limerick and they are afraid to go there because of the trolley crisis. Many things are wrong.

HIQA investing this is a pure joke. It has written to the management to tell it is coming in to investigate, yet it goes into nursing homes with no prior notice, inspecting them and closing them down. This charade of the HSE has to be disbanded. We have to open up the perfect accident and emergency units that were in Nenagh and St. John's Hospital.

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