Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have had this discussion on numerous occasions in recent months. I want answers from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, this evening because a public meeting is being held in Cashel tomorrow night. The public of the town and the staff in St. Patrick's Hospital deserve answers at this stage. Public representatives belonging to the party of the Minister of State and other Government parties have been giving false information, as far as I am concerned, in Cashel about money being ring-fenced and parking facilities being too small in the area.

Let us get this out there at the start. In 2019, this project went to design stage. Three weeks ago, we were told it was moving along. Now, the unit is being moved out of the grounds of St. Patrick's Hospital, Cashel. Last week, the Minister of State referred to commercially sensitive information. There is none. We were told this at a meeting of the HSE the other day, at which Deputy Mattie McGrath was present. The Government is talking now about a site the HSE owns. I can guarantee it, and I said this to the representatives of the HSE the other day, that no unit will ever go up on that site. I do not even know if the Minister of State knows where the site is located. There is not much more room there for a car, never mind an ambulance or anything like that, to get up to that site. This is all the misinformation that is out there in public. The people of Cashel and County Tipperary deserve better.

Last Friday, we discovered that no cost analysis was done regarding moving this unit from St. Patrick's Hospital. There also seems to be no engineer's report stating this unit is too small. I asked the Minister of State for this review last week, but I have still not got it. There must have been a meeting where it was decided to move the unit out of its current site at St. Patrick's Hospital. These documents have not been forthcoming. What kind of situation is going on in the HSE that meetings seem to be going on where vital decisions are being made about people's lives, but where there are no minutes? We are being told about reports from HIQA, etc., saying that the site is too small and that there is no parking. When St. Patrick's Hospital was going full belt, there were 300 patients and staff on site and there was never an issue with parking. An issue with parking came up three weeks ago, and that was about the end of it. I will come back in after Deputy Mattie McGrath.

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