Phil Prendergast (Labour)

Staff, management, patients and their families were unaware that a plan to close St. Michael's had been drawn up. In fact, discussions on the future of acute mental health services in Tipperary could barely be described as being at a preliminary stage. This plan is a direct contradiction of what the Minister, Deputy Harney, told a meeting of Oireachtas Members for South Tipperary last December. She said no decisions would be made about any aspect of our health services without notice and without consultation first taking place with Oireachtas Members, stakeholders and other interested parties both in South and North Tipperary. That means that HSE South has broken the Minister's promise by formulating and announcing this plan. It means that regional officials have decided to go over the Minister's head to try to press ahead with their plan without ministerial approval.

The reorganisation of health services in County Tipperary looks like it is being run by a faction of HSE officials who believe they are not accountable to anyone, including Ministers. I am demanding that these people within the HSE be made accountable for their actions. Their motives should be unmasked. It is obvious that those behind this plan are using it as a means to downgrade South Tipperary General Hospital also because those 49 acute beds are factored in with the general hospital's complement. Taking 49 acute beds from that complement is a de facto downgrading. That is because a lower number of beds would attract a different banding, which attracts different funding as the Minister of State knows. It has implications for the reconfiguration process currently going on within HSE South concerning the four acute hospitals in the south east.

There is a growing suspicion that the reconfiguration of health services in South Tipperary is being driven by a group of people whose personal interests in centralising services in Kilkenny are being put ahead of patient welfare. I am calling on the Minister of State to suspend the plan to axe St. Michael's. He should call to account the promoters of this shocking disregard for the Minister, for proper procedure and, most importantly, for patient welfare. If this does not happen it means we have in our democracy a group of self-appointed decision makers with powers that exceed those of the Minister and the Minister of State. Did the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, or the Minister, Deputy Harney, know of this plan before it was announced?

There was almost a complete lack of consultation with stakeholders before announcing the closure of an acute inpatient mental health service unit in County Tipperary that had operated for more than 150 years. It was an undemocratic decision made by faceless people. There was no chance for any of the people in the county involved at the coalface to make submissions. There was a lack of logic in pre-empting overall configuration decisions for the south east which might include the removal of some services from Kilkenny. I am assured St. Canice's is located in a very old building and so happens to be in the grounds of Lacken House, the HSE head office for the region.