Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Health if she will commission a feasibility study into the provision of CT scans in Monaghan hospital. [64412/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The decisions by previous Governments to remove all services from Monaghan hospital has proven to be absolutely disastrous for the health services across the region. It has been a battle a day ever since to establish new services at Monaghan hospital. The most recent battle was in relation to an MRI scanner, that eventually we are told will be in place over the next 18 months, which is still far too long. I am asking the Minister that we do not have to go through the same rigmarole and process to get what is blatantly needed, which is a CT scanner in Monaghan hospital. Will she ensure that this is put in place?

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Cavan and Monaghan operate as a single entity with integrated managerial and clinical governance systems, care pathways and support functions. They are 46 km apart from each other. Cavan and Monaghan hospitals currently have two CT scanners and one MRI scanner. Two CT scanners is one more than is available to the people in Mayo, where there is only one CT scanner in Mayo university hospital. There is no business case submitted by Cavan and Monaghan hospital for a CT scanner. The hospital does not have plans to seek additional CT capacity as clear clinical pathways exist to support the region. The replacement to the existing MRI has been approved. Works are expected to be completed by the end of the year. It is clear to me that the number of scans done at Cavan general hospital this year is very considerable and has increased but the opportunity to do more also exists.

Up to 31 May 2025, around 22,000 CT scans took place in Cavan and Monaghan hospital, which is a year to date increase of about 6%. As I look at the operating hours, there are normal working hours of nine to five, two outpatient scanning per week from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and 24-hour seven-day-per-week emergency department services provided. There is always a well-acknowledged challenge in respect of radiographers and radiologists but it certainly shows that there is capacity in the existing CT machines with additional staffing and rostering to considerably increase utilisation. A business case has not been submitted by Cavan and Monaghan hospital for a third CT scanner.

I have heard about Monaghan hospital a number of times. It is really important to express how much investment in additional staff have gone in there. The budget has increased by 54% since 2020 and the number of staff in the Monaghan element of the Cavan and Monaghan hospital has increased by 70%, which is an outstandingly large outlier having regard to all of the other hospitals.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I invite the Minister to go back and read her statement and those of her predecessors about an MRI scanner at Monaghan hospital and several other issues. She is right. There have been staff increases in Monaghan hospital and services have increased in terms of provision. Every single one required a sustained campaign to force the Department and the HSE to see logic. When it came to the minor injuries unit when Monaghan hospital was operating at the lowest operating hours anywhere in the State, we had to fight tooth and nail to get the same operating hours as everyone else. The then Minister said the exact same as the Minister is saying today. When it came to the MRI scanner, I put down questions to Ministers countless times and they gave the exact same answer as the Minister is giving with regard to a CT scanner yet eventually the logic has become apparent and an MRI scanner will be provided. That is the result of pressure put on the Department and the HSE. The Government should cut out the middle man, cut out the messing and deliver. It should carry out a feasibility study on a CT scanner for Monaghan hospital because it is what the county deserves.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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There is nothing the Deputy likes better than a good campaign and nothing he likes less than a few facts. Staffing has increased by 70%. I am so glad to hear him acknowledge it today because there are so many times when I do not hear that about Monaghan.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister had to be dragged kicking and screaming.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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That may be the Deputy's perception of all things but if he had been here he would have heard the dialogue around diagnostics, including from his party spokesperson, and the utilisation of them - he is sitting beside Deputy Conway-Walsh, whose county does actually does need a second CT scanner in Mayo University Hospital and the local injury unit. I was there this week.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Deliver it. We have none in Monaghan.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy does not like answers that do not operate as convenient for him. He is the only Deputy this morning who talked across me as I was trying to give him an answer. He does not like facts.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Because she is not giving an answer.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy does not like an answer. I am entitled to give him an answer to his question. He asked me about Monaghan hospital. Here is his answer. Cavan and Monaghan have two CT scanners and an MRI scanner. They are the same unit. Staffing has increased by 70%. The budget has increased by 54% for Monaghan alone. What the Deputy does not like is how my colleague, Deputy Maxwell, reminds him of the number of hospitals and services removed in the adjoining area in the North of Ireland that have been closed under Sinn Féin's watch. It is about time Deputy Carthy recognised the totality of services for people in that region as the rest of the country does.