Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is wonderful to have a Minister of State from Limerick in front of me after the weekend we had. It is great to have this opportunity to discuss a very important issue with our Minister of State from Limerick.

On a more serious note, I have a Commencement matter put down today on the need for the Minister for Health to provide an update on a new endoscopy unit based in Bantry General Hospital, including timelines for the unit being operational. This is a very important debate to get clarification on the good work that is happening in Bantry General Hospital at the moment. We have seen significant development in Bantry General Hospital. In fact, the budget since 2019 has increased by nearly 20%. It is a significant driver in our community. I want to outline what is happening with this really important unit and maybe get the timeline for when it will actually be fully finished and opened.

Bantry General Hospital is a unique entity in our part of the world. It is a remote rural hospital that provides acute general services to the population of west Cork but also to places such places as mid-Cork, south Kerry and potentially all the way over to the Minister of State's part of the world in Limerick. It is literally such a driver in our economy. It has 330 whole-time equivalents, which means more than 600 staff work there. There are 17 house doctors and an amazing six full-time consultants based there. Significant investment has been happening in this complex over the past ten years in particular. I outline the endoscopy unit which we are talking about here today. There is a day service with outreach surgeries, an injuries unit, a department of medicine, a high-dependency unit, an acute medical assessment unit, a stroke unit, radiation wards, laboratories, physiotherapy and cardiac testing. It is an amazing complex with so much happening in Bantry.

What has happened, unfortunately, is that we are in an election cycle. In election cycles this hospital always becomes a political football. I acknowledge the wonderful staff there who do so much for Bantry. I mention in particular Carole Croke, the general manager, who works day and night to make sure the complex works to its full potential. It is about trying to get the mix out of this political football. There has been significant development. Significant money has been put in. This unit is now upgraded and is nearly finished. I was there in recent weeks to watch the good work there.This unit will be an important part of the master plan for Bantry General Hospital. It is unfortunate that some local election candidates have used their literature to talk about Bantry General Hospital being downgraded. If anything, the investment we have seen has been amazing. I want to get that on the record of the Seanad today. The amount of money we have spent and services we have put in, with the real focus we have put on the complex in the past ten years, have to be looked at. The feeling in Bantry is that this is one of the best hospitals in the country and the staff are the best in the country. To have local election candidates going around talking about it being downgraded is unfair on the staff, the management and the people who use the service daily.

I had the privilege, a few weeks ago, of walking through this unit that has been proposed and nearly finished. I am looking for an update regarding when that will be up and running, when the timelines will be set in order that we can have another step in making sure that Bantry will continue to be the world-class unit that it is,and to dispel the myths that will come up in every election, that it is closing down. It is anything but. It is thriving and moving forward.