Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleague in calling for the matter of the beds that are supposed to be closed in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire to be rectified. I agree with Senator Gavan that these matters should be highlighted. One good news item is that representatives of the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire met representatives of Roscommon County Hospital in Roscommon in recent weeks as it is planned to have a ten-bed rehabilitation step-down facility from the hospital in Dún Laoghaire in Roscommon County Hospital for the west. That is good news. That is one of three developments that is happening in Roscommon County Hospital. I know from where Senator Gavan is coming on this issue. Hospital beds should not be closed. I have been fighting for people to be admitted to the hospital in Dún Laoghaire. We must get to the bottom of that issue.

The Seanad should highlight a brave and perhaps controversial move by Mike Nesbitt, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, who has called for a second preference vote to be given to the SDLP. It is a very significant move in what is sometimes the toxic sectarianism of politics in Northern Ireland. It has probably been done for political gain but it should be marked as a very brave step, and it is a very positive move. Unfortunately, we could have done a sectarian headcount of the politics in Northern Ireland in the past but that has changed. This is a significant move and the Seanad should welcome it. We should welcome the fact that somebody is prepared to stand above the parapet and be counted. That he has been derided on his own side by the DUP and TUV shows the significance of such a statement. It should be welcomed by the Seanad.