Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for this important and excellent motion. As we heard yesterday, there are major issues with the National Ambulance Service. Unfortunately, the Minister was not present for the debate. I presume he had to miss it for a genuine reason. He needs to sit up and listen because people are dying on the side of the road and in their homes because of the lack of a proper ambulance service.

I want to concentrate on the possibility of using hospitals like Bantry General Hospital. I want to compliment the staff of the hospital, which is no doubt one of the finest hospitals in the country. The people who go to there tell me about the excellent and speedy care they receive, which is second to none. It is astonishing to think that people who fall and break a bone in Ardgroom, Castletownbere, the Sheep's Head Peninsula, Mizen Head, Bandon or Clonakilty pass the hospital to go to CUH, which is overcrowded. It is an astonishing situation that people have to lie in the back of an ambulance.

I have been criticised by Senators and Deputies in west Cork who have said that I should not give out about Bantry General Hospital. We have an excellent hospital which is not being used to the best of its ability thanks to the HSE and decisions being made elsewhere. People are flying past the hospital with patients who require minor treatments. Those people could be looked after in their own area.

I compliment the staff. I refer to SouthDoc doctors and nurses. I was in a clinic in Clonakilty recently and spoke to doctors, nurses and other staff who never got a Covid payment. They worked day and night during Covid. It is terrible that they did not get the €1,000 other workers received.

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