Deputy Seamus Healy
Deputy Seamus Healy, Chair of the Save Our Acute Hospital Services Committee, has warned the Health Service Executive and the Minister for Health to keep their hands off the services at South Tipperary General Hospital.
Deputy Healy was responding to media reports suggesting that the emergency department at the Hospital was being earmarked for closure.
As in the past, “people power” will defeat any attempt to downgrade services at South Tipperary General Hospital.
Saturday 27 th March, 2010 was a red letter day for hospital services in South Tipperary. That was the day the people of South Tipperary stood, 15,000 strong, on the streets of Clonmel and defeated the last attempt to downgrade and transfer our hospital services.
I have no doubt the people of Tipperary will do the same again if needed.
The closure of the emergency department at South Tipperary General Hospital would be dangerous and irresponsible and would indeed put lives at risk with seriously ill patients bypassing the hospital going to already overcrowded services at Cork and Waterford.
Far from downgrading and closure, South Tipperary General Hospital needs to be supported with additional resources, funding and staff. The hospital is “bursting at its seams” working at 120% capacity every hour of every day.
The newly appointed Minister for Health, Mr. Simon Harris T.D., at my request, will be visiting the hospital shortly to see both the excellent work being done at the hospital and the difficulties being experienced by patients and staff due to under resourcing and shortage of beds.
Indeed we are currently in discussion with the Minister with a view to getting approval for a quick build 40 bed capacity modular/hotel type unit for the hospital for the coming winter.
I will be raising the issue of the future of the emergency department at South Tipperary General Hospital in the Dáil with the Minister this week.
Seamus Healy TD
12/07/2016
087 2802199
The imposition of austerity on workers and the poor throughout the EU has had a dramatic outcome in the vote of the majority in the UK to leave the EU.
The capitulation of social democratic political and trade union leaders to this imposition by the European Elites has thrown workers into the hands of right wing leaders.
The abstention by large numbers of nationalist people in the North shows that there is little confidence in a policy of “remain” under current political circumstances as public service cuts are implemented through the Northern Assembly and Executive.
The economic shock caused by this outcome will have huge implications for the 26-county economy bringing a deepening of the economic crisis.
It was a huge betrayal by the 26-co government and its supporting elites to agree to the Fiscal Treaty and to agree to have the Irish people pay 42% of all European Bank Debt. It is this which has made the Irish people so deeply powerless and vulnerable to this shock
I call on the government to open immediate talks with the European Union.
There must be no second capitulation to the EU threat that a “bomb would go off in Dublin”
We must demand , not ask, for compensation from the EU for the bank bailout payments and the termination of the application of the Fiscal Treaty to the whole of Ireland.
The 26 county government must also accept responsibility for the well- being of the people of the whole of Ireland North And South in these talks.
The outcome raises the necessity for an early election to an All-Ireland Parliament to be in place before the 100 th anniversary of the first All-Ireland Dáil(1918) in two years time ( 2018). This is necessary in order to restore Irish sovereignty which is now more necessary than ever to protect the interests of the Irish People North South
Seamus Healy TD
087-2802199
I stood in the recent general election as a Right2Water and Right2Change candidate and have been involved in the movement since the initial stages. I congratulate all water campaigners around the country who in the past two and a half or three years stood up to be counted. Hundreds of thousands of people went out onto the streets. Community campaigners, anti-metering protestors and those who fought Irish Water on every street and estate and in every village, town and city stood up to be counted. They also stood up to the political parties. People power has won its first victory against water charges. Those involved have forced the political parties to retreat. The emerging deal – a fudge – is the first victory as the Government and Fianna Fáil have been forced to back down, but they did not do so voluntarily. They did it under the pressure exerted by people power. A word of caution to everyone involved in the campaign: he or she should stay organised and continue to resist metering. The political parties are treacherous and may attempt to reintroduce water charges. Today’s bad tempered rant by the caretaker Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, may be an indication of what is to come. If we stay organised and continue to resist metering, however, water charges will be dead and buried.
As we have said from the beginning, water charges are unjust and represent double taxation. They were the straw that broke the camel’s back among people who had been devastated by austerity, in particular low and middle income families. A motion on the Order Paper that has been signed by 39 Deputies calls for the abolition of water charges and the enshrining in the Constitution of the public ownership of water infrastructure. It should be debated urgently, but, unfortunately, Fianna Fáil has agreed with Fine Gael to prevent that from happening. I appeal to Fianna Fáil, the Members of which where elected on a pledge to end water charges, to allow the motion to be tabled and voted on, as there is a majority in the House in favour of abolishing water charges. Irish Water must be abolished as it has been a disaster for ordinary people. We must also ensure the many people who paid their water charges under duress – the elderly people who were afraid and people who were ill and worried certainly did not pay voluntarily – will have their money refunded. It is important that the legislation underpinning domestic water charges is repealed. I appeal to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to allow the motion on the Order Paper to be debated and voted on so as to put water charges and Irish Water to bed once and for all.
Workers & Unemployed Action 