Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be associated with the good wishes extended to the Irish Examiner. As a former columnist for the paper, I have happy memories of my engagement with its staff.

It is important that the promise of an inquiry into the death of Fr. Niall Molloy is kept. I attended the very informative briefing yesterday, at which Ms Gemma O'Doherty spoke and I said that as a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, I would support the proposal that the committee take up the matter. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, made a promise. I mentioned another promise last week about the Galway hospice. Promises must mean something. A commitment was given and that inquiry should take place. We have spent a lot of time in Ireland talking about miscarriages of justice in other jurisdictions where innocent people went to jail, but it is also a miscarriage of justice when somebody dies and there is no proper investigation and trial. It seems that there is more than a prima facie case to support this claim. Our commitment to and pride in the justice system mean that we must have an inquiry into the matter.

Like many people, I was disturbed to learn about the extent of the pest problem in the three public hospitals in County Galway. The account of mice, flies and rats in Portiuncula Hospital and University College Hospital Galway is helpfully detailed by the Connacht Tribune. It reads like the hold of Noah's Ark and is a real issue. We missed the opportunity during the boom years to develop our hospital infrastructure properly. Now we learn about poor quality food being served in hospitals at a time when people need good nutrition in order to recover, as well as about a pest problem that is linked with hygiene. There is a huge cost incurred in pest control, on which it would be good to hear from the Minister for Health. It is important that public confidence in our hospitals is high. It is not edifying to learn about flies in the kitchen of one hospital and mice in the emergency unit of another. It is not where we should be in the provision of health care in the 21st century.