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

The question is where the money is going to. The funny thing was nobody except the Rural Independent Group was opposed to where the children's hospital went. We told Deputies it was in the wrong place and was running over budget. They voted us down and told us we were all mad and off our heads. Look at it now: it is a hoover of the highest order and there is not a head rolling anywhere. Some people are looking for a pat on the back for running a hospital completely and crazily over budget with no accountability. No other country in the world would accept this but good old Ireland has. Why did Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin approve where it was going? Let none of them look at us and tell us we were in the wrong. We said "No, hang on lads". As few resources as we have, we got the right experts in to tell us it would run crazily over budget and was built in the wrong place, both of which are true. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the lads are all giving pats on the back. Somebody is making a fortune and that is why somebody else is suffering. Who is suffering? The people who deliver home help services will have to suffer because of the Government’s incompetence. They will have their hour cut to 45 minutes. Will the person doing 30 minutes be cut down to 15 minutes? Will new people be brought on board? It was announced last week that new people will not be brought on board. There is an embargo in relation to home helps.

I have a big issue with the stroke unit in Bantry General Hospital. From within the hospital they are pleading with us. The Minister was down recently and said he had no money for the stroke unit. That is a shocking situation because that money has been promised by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael election after election, but with no delivery. The catchment is from Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Bandon to Castletownbere and all the way out to the Mizen Peninsula and the Sheep’s Head Peninsula. They need a proper, new, structured stroke unit, the same as the people of Dublin and Ireland needed a children's hospital, but we will not get it. We are put on the long finger because health has run over its budget and nobody here is putting up their hand saying they or somebody made a mistake. There are layers of management. Surely they can find where all the money is gone. Surely somebody can find where the millions and millions have gone. Are we gone into billions? It is an astonishing situation. It is farcical, and no head will roll.

I have been on to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, recently about the nursing home situation. That is part of the health budget as well. It is sad to think a nursing home in Belgooly that once had 68 patients proud to be there will have nobody tomorrow. The Government stood idly by. I accept I got correspondence from the Minister of State but it was continuously defending HIQA’s decision. She could have stepped in. The HSE has to have a procedure in place to step in and take over the running of that nursing home. It is not fewer nursing homes we want in west Cork, but more. She did not step in; she kept hiding behind HIQA.

There is no worry about Deputy O’Donoghue’s area tomorrow morning. There will be 140 or 150 people in corridors around UHL, but when Belgooly needed help, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party turned their back on it and 48 patients were thrown out of that hospital. I met families who told me what was done to them. It was scandalous beyond belief that the Government stood idly by, hiding behind HIQA, instead of the HSE stepping in and taking over the running of that once brilliant nursing home. It is scandalous the way the health budget has been run. The Ministers would want to wake up, get out of those seats and let someone in who can run the show.

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