Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. It is not a mutual admiration club but I want to pay tribute to her own hands-on approach. Having said that, this hospital has been limping from week to week. Back in October 2022, which is almost four years ago, it was announced that Clifden hospital would be closing. It was a terrible blow and all of the local representatives, those from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and everyone, were in. I pay tribute to them all. There were public meetings and the sense of frustration at those meetings was just palpable. It has limped on from October. It is not a good position to be in that it is limping on. It closed in February of this year and it reopened in May with a few beds and a small number of staff. The Minister of State herself has referred, as has the senior Minister, to the number of agency staff that are now being used. We have gone full circle again. We tried to stop agency staff and we are now back. We in the Opposition find ourselves saying we should take any staff, which is not a good way to run any system. I will not go over time. I will come back in.

See this speech in context