Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will be in Letterkenny on Friday, and he will meet the representatives of the GPs and consultants who have expressed grave concern about the major acute hospital in the country. This is an important meeting. I urge the Minister to listen to what the representatives have to say and to understand that what lies at the heart of the crisis in our hospital is years of systematic underfunding. In a recent letter to the Minister from almost 30 consultants in Letterkenny University Hospital, it was estimated that the underinvestment right now amounts to €45 million. That is about 25% less than what the hospital should have. It also means that we do not have the number of consultants, junior doctors, nurses and beds right across the spectrum. It is absolutely unthinkable that with all of that said and the challenges the Minister is going to face on Friday, he would have a freeze on recruitment not just in Letterkenny University Hospital, but anywhere in the health services across Donegal. As the Minister well knows, if there is a recruitment freeze in community hospitals and community care, all of that has a knock-on impact in the crisis at the emergency department.

I urge the Minister to act on the issues that the representatives raise, to have a plan whereby the senior management of Letterkenny hospital and the Saolta hospital group meet the GP and consultant representatives, the TDs and the councillors in the HSE forum on a regular basis, giving us updates and actions. Fundamentally, the Minister needs to accept that it is an absolute and incontrovertible fact that there clearly has been systematic underfunding and neglect of the hospital compared with other hospitals and to turn that around and address issues raised here. The Government cannot defund the health service and have a recruitment freeze at a time of crisis but my God, it cannot do it in Donegal.

See this speech in context