Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is more than welcome. We are having a very interesting debate about the UL Hospitals Group and where matters stand. The first line of the motion is really important. It is amazing that €24 billion is being spent on health. That is the core issue: we are now putting as much money as is required into the health service.

I will speak openly about what we have in my part of the world. We have the best medium-sized hospital in the world , namely, Bantry General Hospital. The management of the hospital have worked on its potential in the past few years. There are 17 house doctors, six consultants and an overall staff of 300 at this hospital that is located in a remote area. The biggest factor that comes into play is confidence. When there is a bad story about Bantry, staff do not want to go there because they are of the view that it is being talked down. This is no longer about money; it is about trying to get staff into the system, building confidence and making sure that said confidence is built in order staff will follow the approach that has been adopted. Unfortunately, a really important aspect of this debate is that if people continue to talk down both the health service and the those on the front line and the work that they do, then staff will not come to a particular district or hospital.

If we are talking about remote locations, we have to look at Bantry. It is what it is, but it is a fantastic location. We need to start talking up what is being done. Twenty four billion euro is an amazing amount of money to put into the health service. Capital development has come through. The unemployment rate has fallen below what was a 20-year record. We need people. The only way to attract people is to build confidence and start talking up what we have done. That is what we need to do. We are making the investment. We are going have a world-class health service in a matter of years. It takes time to build a service. If we continue to talk it down, unfortunately, people will not go into it.