Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make one key point to the Deputy first of all. He said that we are waiting for clinical reviews to get political cover. Anybody who knows anything about how healthcare has evolved over the past 20 years will know that clinical expertise have been the driver and has occasioned courageous political decisions with regard to modernising healthcare service in this country. Politics likes to ignore the harsh advice that comes from the bodies that set the various standards such as the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the authorities on cardiology. It is wrong to suggest it is all politics. No politician wants to close anything in any hospital. I have never come across a politician who willingly says that he or she wants to close a given service. However, the politicians of the parties of successive Governments receive advice as to what is optimal with regard to patient safety in given locations.

I remember when emergency medical technician, EMT, was hardly recognised as a profession in this country. The most important thing for a person who has a heart attack is the first responder, rather than how close the hospital is. Thankfully, we have professionalised the role of EMTs through the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, PHECC, initiative we undertook more than 20 years ago. That type of modernisation has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of deaths from cardiovascular issues. This country has some of the best survival rates in Europe with regard to cardiovascular issues. We need to have a debate that is balanced and that shows perspective. What we were doing in the past with regard to cardiovascular and cancer healthcare was all wrong. We have changed that over two decades with the result that we are now number one in the European Union league table of lifespans. However, we conveniently ignore all of that when endeavouring to get local political advantage, which I respectfully suggest is what the Deputy is about. He summed it up in his last paragraph when he reduced all of this to politics and said that someone would pay an electoral price for not going wholesale against advice received from cardiologists and clinicians, whether we like that advice or not.

The Deputy knows well - he has engaged with me and other Members of this House on the matter - that we have put investment into a second cath lab in Waterford. That funding is just in terms of the facility. Recruitment in order to staff the new cath lab is ongoing. As I have informed the Deputy previously, the lab will be available for use in October. A total of 24 whole-time equivalents have been approved by the South/South West Hospital Group to staff the second cath lab.

More broadly, employment in the south east increased by 13.6% year on year which is a really strong performance and the Deputy should acknowledge that. The Government approved more than €120 million through the urban regeneration and development fund for Waterford, and still the Deputy comes in here and says the Government is ignoring and does not care about Waterford. What he says does not stack up.

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