Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am speaking today on behalf of families in County Longford, and indeed, all the families that have been affected by cancer. I want to take this opportunity to compliment everyone involved in Longford Hospice Homecare and all the community nurses who are based in Longford. Longford Hospice Homecare has been operating in my county for all of my lifetime. A tremendous amount of work and fundraising has been done. I want to compliment the work the organisation does.

The issue I am raising today is one that I raised 12 months ago. It concerns the need for additional palliative care beds at St. Joseph's Care Centre. A massive redevelopment was announced by the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, a number of years ago, with over €5 million in funding and planning processes and discussions. We were told that there would be a minimum of two palliative beds, yet we still only have one. I wrote to the HSE and got a letter back basically saying that any decision to designate one or more beds would have to be made by the HSE at a national level, and any commitment to increasing the number of palliative care support beds at the expense of long-stay beds would have to be accompanied by an appropriate budget allocation to compensate for the fair deal income reduction in order to maintain services for current and future residents. I do not think that is acceptable.

I have submitted evidence and have written to the HSE regarding getting more updated figures for the last number of months. I was given a figure of 64% bed capacity in 2021, but it was actually higher. We have seen that in recent weeks €20 million has been allocated to a 20-bed unit in Tullamore to cover the midlands area, but the reality is that we still have just one palliative care bed in St. Joseph's. There are numerous families with loved ones who are spending their last days in acute hospital settings or in palliative care outside their county and not close to home. That is not fair on the families and it is not acceptable. There are areas within the campus in Longford where extra beds could be facilitated. A gentleman that I knew all my life passed away in the last 24 hours. God rest him. He was unable to access a palliative care bed in Longford because there were none available. This needs to be addressed. It is not acceptable. We want changes made.