John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch to the House. I welcome the people from Ballinasloe who are in the Visitors Gallery. I wish to express my sympathy for the situation in which they find themselves because as a Roscommon man, I have been in that position and know what they are going through. People have better things to do with their time. Many of those in the Visitors Gallery are nurses who worked late last night and could do without having to come to Dublin to be here for this debate.

I was critical of the Fianna Fáil Party motion, but I do not think the Members opposite formulated it. I believe it was formulated by somebody else with the intention of embarrassing a number of Senators on this side. That includes the Members from Roscommon - myself, Senator Terry Leyden and Senator Michael Mullins in particular. The motion does nothing more than hoodwink the people of Ballinasloe. Private Members' motions do not get accepted unless they get Government backing. If everybody voted in favour of the Fianna Fáil motion it does not mean that anything will be different. It does not mean the HSE will change its plans.

This motion is similar to a letter to Santa Claus, it is aspirational and no more than that. Even when a Bill - legislation has greater weight - is passed by this House, it may be parked by Government if it does not suit. I introduced such a Bill that was parked. Many of the decent people who contacted me in the past couple of weeks were not aware that this was the situation. They were convinced that if this House voted in favour of retaining the psychiatric services in Ballinasloe it would reverse the proposed closure. No matter how the vote goes it will not reverse the decision. The person who designed the motion should be ashamed for misleading the people. In the words of Mark Twain, a lie can go half way around the world before the truth comes out.