Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil introducing legislation to provide for revised governance and accountability for the HSE is farcical. In effect, the most substantive aspect of governance I see is a chief executive whose grossly substantial salary facilitates their operating as a mudguard for the Minister of the day. Regarding accountability, with scandal after scandal in our health service, the one certainty is always that no one will be held to account and that there will be no transparency. This should not come as a surprise to anybody, because it is part of a culture that is not limited to the HSE. It pervades every inch of Government itself. The Taoiseach, not content to be unable to admit that he and his Government have made mistakes in the past, has in recent weeks sought to rewrite history to cover up for his failure to protect services in Cavan and Monaghan while he was in government.

The facts are plain to see. The health boards had been abolished by the time Monaghan emergency department closed. The HSE was in place when accident and emergency services were stripped from our hospital in Monaghan under a Fianna Fáil Government. If the Taoiseach would like to backdate the decision to his own tenure as Minister for Health, he is free to do so, but the situation today is the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill's responsibility. The minor injuries unit in Monaghan hospital does incredible work but this is not enough. We need an emergency department. A person can wait over 24 hours in Cavan emergency department without the necessary services. This is just not good enough. This hospital in Cavan is servicing three counties.

I can give the Minister an example. A person from Monaghan with an injury - for example, a suspected broken bone - may find themselves in the minor injuries unit in Monaghan hospital and will be asked to go to Cavan hospital emergency department. God knows how long people will have to wait there. I have waited there for 24 hours with my mother. After that wait, because you have a suspected broken bone, you will be asked to travel to Drogheda to wait again. The Minister might find it hard to believe this, but this is what the people of Cavan and Monaghan are dealing with.

What is the Minister going to do about it? Past Ministers and the HSE have utterly refused to even examine the situation. If we ask about additional equipment in Monaghan, for example, a CT scanner or MRI scanner, currently exclusively located in Cavan hospital, we are told there is not a need because people can access them in Cavan hospital, but despite this, hundreds of people are on waiting lists, and waiting times in Cavan hospital are unacceptable. I ask the Minister again for a feasibility study and for this to happen in Cavan and Monaghan hospital so that we have the correct equipment in those hospitals. Can the Minister appreciate how frustrating it is for the people of Monaghan that they have to travel to Cavan and Drogheda to be seen and not have such long waiting lists? Why are we being treated by this?

I am utterly convinced of the need to restore services to Monaghan hospital that were stripped away by previous Governments but the Minister can make a change. My appeal to her is straightforward. Will the Minister agree to review the current operational framework of emergency care in Cavan and Monaghan, particularly the need for CT and MRI scanners in Monaghan hospital?

See this speech in context