Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste's ability to extol a narrative that does not exist knows no bounds. When people go to bed at night in Cork, they have no worries about heart attack access. However, when people go to bed in Waterford and the south east, they have significant worries, particularly those who have ongoing cardiac issues. In the last three months, three friends of mine have ended up in Waterford hospital, after hours, at night, with a heart attack. All three went to Cork and not one of them got there in under four hours from the time of presentation. The Tánaiste is a former Minister for Health. He knows that the clinical standard is 90 minutes. Four hours means cardiac muscle damage, further ongoing complications and a shortening of life.

The Tánaiste and Deputy Butler stood for a photograph in 2016 and any innocence about what the Tánaiste promised has long since evaporated. As a former Minister for Health, the Tánaiste knows the importance of this. The physiology of people in Waterford and the south east is no different from anybody else's in Ireland. It is palpably unfair that it has taken three and a half years to deliver a second CAT lab, what was done in a private hospital in less than three months. We still do not have a 24-7 service and we still do not even have a seven-day service. That is what I am pointing out and that is the record the Tánaiste is finishing this Government with.

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