Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Any projects working their way through the process will be assessed on a project-by-project basis, as they always have been. When we look at Tipperary, Clonmel, the hospital there and the county as a whole, what we see in terms of health services is a story of more and better services being provided. We have gone through the very big increase in funding, staff and services for Tipperary hospital. We have talked about the extra beds and the big difference they will make. As the Deputy will be aware, at the same time there has been a big increase in investment in community services, new primary care centres, new primary care teams, new older persons teams and new chronic disease management teams. When all that is combined, the story of healthcare in Tipperary, while we have a long way to go, as we do across the country, is one of progress and of our healthcare professionals providing more and more and better services to the people of the county.

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