David Norris (Independent)

This serious matter is too close to the heart. The difficulty is that if, as proposed, this hospital is closed, there will be serious consequences for the current patients. The 20 clients of the day care centre will lose this service and a tradition going back 151 years will be gone. The hospital is the largest employer on the island, employing 35 people, in the equivalent of 20 full-time posts, who will lose their jobs. The island has suffered from the closure of the Western Union International, when it terminated its cable operations 1966 and this led to 35 children leaving the island. The island could be devastated by this closure.

It will cost the State twice as much to close the hospital as to keep it open and I have the figures to back up that assertion. The patients will be relocated to the mainland and dispersed over three hospitals. They will not have visits and will languish there. It is inhuman. I ask the Minister of State to give a commitment to do something about it.

I seek the indulgence of the Chair to allow one minute for Senator Moloney who has a particular interest to speak on this issue.