Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

I appreciate the Tánaiste’s reply but we need more certainty. This has gone on way too long. His Government needs to make a decision now to have a model 3 hospital. The idea of sending everybody through the UHL emergency room is downright bananas. It is crazy. It is criminal. We need to upgrade the model 2 hospitals in Nenagh and Ennis, 100%. However, a decision has to be made on the principle that the mid-west would have one model 3 hospital. The mid-west has a growing population and a population that is larger than that in the south east which has two model three and one model four hospitals. I accept the Tánaiste has gone far but I urge him to confirm that he will do this because we need it. It may mean identifying a site, putting a 100-bed unit on it and wrapping a hospital around it, because I know that will take more years, or using Nenagh or Ennis. We will debate all that again. Will the Tánaiste confirm the principle that the mid-west will have a future, that there will be ambition for it and that we will be able to address these issues for the people and that in the future they will not be frightened of going into just one access point through UHL?

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