Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire. I welcome some of what the Minister of State says but I am not sure it is going to give the answer we need. As I said, there is serious concern among the staff and the public that the position that I am talking about - the clinical specialist radiographer - will not be filled. We need to make sure this happens and I would like to think the Minister of State will come back to me. I welcome that he says the recruitment process is ongoing, that there will be disruption to patient care or service delivery and all clinical services continue to operate as normal. That is all fine.

He also said that a recruitment process to fill this vacancy has commenced, a number of applications have been received and interviews for this position are due to take place later this month. However, that does not necessarily answer where this position is going to be. I want and hope that surety can be provided that this specialist position will make its way to the Louth County Hospital where it is necessary from the point of view of the work that has to be done. It is also necessary from the point of view of ensuring that we have the correct level of supervision that is dictated by the Irish Institute of Radiography and Radiation Therapy.

I am not sure that the Minister of State will be in the position to give that answer, but I will be chasing up the Minister of Health. I also ask that the Minister of State engages with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. We need to ensure that this is not a further downgrading of Louth County Hospital or the downgrading of the very important works that need to be done whether we are talking about the necessity of everything from ultrasounds through to X-rays, CT scanning and Dexa scanning. We need to make sure that this necessary facility is maintained. As much as we went to see Our Lady of Lourdes operating at full capacity, we do not need to lose this service in the Louth County Hospital.

If the Minister of State can give me the answer - brilliant stuff. If he cannot, he needs to chase it up with the Minister. I will be doing the same because it is not good enough that we let down the people of Dundalk.

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