Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I ask her seriously to consider putting the brakes on and offering an independent review of the marking scheme that is taking beds away from Ballinasloe. I have looked at the facts. The unit for Galway is not due to be in place until March 2015. I serve Galway city. University College Hospital Galway is overcrowded. It is our centre of excellence for cardiac, cancer and many other issues and does not need the mental health unit there as well. It is overcrowded and to decide to put more facilities in University College Hospital Galway is to downgrade that hospital. For example, there is a proposal to move the addiction and counselling service from Merlin Park to that hospital, which I vehemently oppose. We know the unit in University College Hospital Galway is not fit for purpose. It is leaking, having been flooded recently. Some €2.8 million or €3 million has been put into the unit at Ballinasloe and now it is being taken out. I grew up in and lived in east Galway where there has been a history and a tradition of mental health services being offered and there is no rhyme or reason to move it. I am supportive of the principles of A Vision for Change but to move the beds into University College Hospital Galway, an area that is already overcrowded and, may I say, reading between the lines, where it is not wanted by the hospital, is not the answer.