Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Twomey for sharing time with me. I support a great deal of the comments he made.

There is something underhand happening. Oireachtas Members have been brought to meetings by the HSE for nearly a year and have been drip-fed information. It is almost as though they have been brought down a particular road in an attempt to have them agree the accident and emergency services in Wexford should be reduced substantially. This is fundamentally and morally wrong.

In common with my parents and grandparents, I was born and bred in County Wexford. My family comes from south of Wexford town and the Wexford town area. Like Senator Twomey, we are from the larger hub of the county, in which the population is predominantly located. While some areas are closer to Waterford, I spoke to a lady on Friday who has a sick little boy who needs immediate care when he becomes ill. Although she lives in the bottom part of the county, at times it has taken her two and a half hours to get to Waterford Regional Hospital because one must cross the bridge at Ross, the bridge at Waterford and then get through Waterford city.

It is morally hazardous and wrong to expect a county as large as Wexford which has a population of 130,000 people to be without an accident and emergency service. If it is policy to prevent Members, as politicians, to intervene when something as fundamental as an accident and emergency department is under threat in a county the size of Wexford, they must question their position as politicians. I also will put this question to the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, because to leave this decision to clinicians negates Members' role as politicians. Matters such as the provision of accident and emergency departments or maternity services in a county as large as Wexford are the subject of political decisions. I support Senator Twomey in this Adjournment Matter.