*Clare TD, Cathal Crowe. Photograph: Natasha Barton
A CLARE TD has called for a slice of the €14 billion income from the Apple tax determination to go towards funding a second Model 3 hospital in the Mid-West region.
At the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party Think-In in County Dublin on Monday, Cathal Crowe TD (FF) told the Tánaisté, Ministers and Oireachtas colleagues that some of the windfall should go to meeting the overdue need for a second Model 3 hospital in the region.
He specifically suggested that a Model 3 hospital should be built in Co Clare, which has been without an Accident & Emergency department within county lines since 2009.
The Department of Finance has confirmed that the value of funds in the escrow account holding the Apple tax money is now €14.1 billion. Whilst the Government has yet to determine how the money is spent.
Deputy Crowe stated, “At one point, the Mid-West region had five Accident & Emergency departments catering for its population but these days approximately half a million people in Mid-West all funnel through one A&E at University Hospital Limerick. This came about following a political decision in 2009 that has had woeful consequences for this region every year since. It will take another political decision to reverse this wrongdoing and as a TD for Clare, I am continuing my efforts to vociferously lead this charge.
“Of the three counties in the Mid-West region, Clare is the most impacted by the 2009 scaling back of A&E cover in the region. For many people living in West and North Clare, there is no ‘golden-hour’ in so far as acute cardiac health problems are concerned. Whilst much good work is done at University Hospital Limerick every day, we have also seen a long litany of examples of poor outcomes for patients there. Several people have needlessly lost their lives in the A&E department and every sinew of our political fibre must now be used to ensure that a Model 3 hospital in the Mid-West is opened,” he said.
HIQA’s report due to be published next May is expected to recommend a second ED be opened in the Mid-West. “Funding a new hospital will not be an easy thing but the windfall that has presented itself from the Apple tax determination provides funding that I believe the Government should use to do so. All of this will hinge on the outcome of a HIQA report which is due to be published next May. This report arose following a direction given by Minister Stephen Donnelly to examine the possibility of establishing a Model 3 Hospital in the region.
“I believe the outcome of this review is inevitable and it will point to the shortcomings of existing healthcare capacity in the region and that it will suggest that we swiftly move to prioritise a new hospital. Tipperary has an A&E department in Clonmel and Limerick has the hospital in Dooradoyle. For a decade and a half, Clare has been left with no A&E department within its borders. The Government have yet to make a decision on how they will spend the income from the Apple tax but I will be fighting the corner of Clare and the wider Mid-West to try to ensure that some of it comes to our region,” the Meelick native concluded.
