Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I raise UHL. We will start off on a positive note. The Minister opened the 96-bed unit in UHL on 13 October. We waited a year and a half for the HIQA report but we have it now. It states exactly what I and others have been saying here for years about UHL. It came out with an A, B and C plan. My view is we need A, B and to work for C. Option A would involve expanding the capacity at UHL. Option B envisages the ED staying on the existing site, along with the infrastructure for critical and complex surgical procedures. Option C is a new hospital for the future. Again on a positive note, a meeting was held here yesterday, convened by Deputy Cooney. It was well-attended by all parties and none. For the first time I was at a meeting where everyone in the room was on the same wavelength. It was 100%. All parties were there. They said A and B plus C.

I do not want this going back into Departments and being buried under paperwork with somebody getting paid stupid money to come up and not deliver. We have had private hospital built in Limerick in 16 months. It was on budget and on time. Let use that model against the spending on the hospitals delivered by the Department. Let us compare one to the other. That private hospital contractor made profit on that building, so why can we not build our hospitals more cheaply, and we take the profit margin out? Why do we not go to the private sector to deliver it? I want A, B and C. I am going to work with everyone who was in the room. There were other people who could not attend who are also in favour of this. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, is here. I hope he backs this as well. We want a new hospital for the mid-west region. The lives of people in Limerick, Tipperary and Clare are at risk unless we deliver this. I have been critical of UHL since the start. I am delighted the previous management are gone. I am delighted with the management there at the moment because they are working with everyone who was at the meeting yesterday. People could not speak highly enough of the management in situ. Bernard Gloster is retiring. He is a massive loss, but replacing him is in the Government's hands and whoever takes his place better be as good as he is because otherwise we are going down the same rabbit hole again.

See this speech in context