Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, send my sympathy and support to the people and communities of west Waterford and east Cork following yesterday's devastating floods.

I raise the issue of dedicated hospice care beds. We used to have three lovely hospice suites in St. Brigid's District Hospital, Carrick-on-Suir, but they were closed unceremoniously with the hospital. We were then promised four beds for the town of Clonmel, which has 18,500 people and with another 10,000 to 15,000 in the hinterlands. Now we find we are getting one bed in the new 50-bed St. Anthony's unit and no designated room for the families. There is one room for families but the unit will hold 50 patients when it opens. We have been sold a pup. The wonderful people on the local committee and community group have fundraised. They are meeting again on Monday morning. They are devastated that the biggest inland town in Ireland has no dedicated hospice bed. We are getting one now without any dedicated family room or suite. While we have two in Clogheen and one in Tipperary town, Clonmel needs hospice beds for palliative care. I thank the nurses and palliative care teams for all the work they do.

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