Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the 60-bed community nursing unit that was to be built in St. Patrick's Hospital in Cashel. In 2022 I raised this issue in the Dáil and was told that the site was not going to be used. The project has dragged on and on, even though the money has been approved for it because the site is not suitable. I was then told that there are two fields in Palmer's Hill owned by the HSE. I warned the Minister that this site is not suitable because of access issues and the site itself. Now I have been told that the HSE is going to waste money purchasing another plot of land beside that site. I can assure the Tánaiste that site will never be used. Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel already has 40 patients who are due to go into the new unit. I ask the Tánaiste or the Minister for Health to intervene and stop the HSE from wasting money. Money should be invested in Our Lady's Hospital. The HSE should reconfigure rooms in that hospital for the other 20 patients who are due to go into the new unit. There should be no more wasting of public money by the HSE on a field that is never going to be used.

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