Carrick-on-Suir hospital campaigners to present their case to Oireachtas committee this week

Save St Brigid's Hospital Action Group members and local politicians protesting at Leinster House on the day the petition was handed over to Minister of State Mary Butler

placeholder image — Save St Brigid's Hospital Action Group members and local politicians protesting at Leinster House on the day the petition was handed over to Minister of State Mary Butler

The campaign opposing the closure of St Brigid's District Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir will be reignited on Thursday afternoon when a delegation from the Save St Brigid's Hospital Action Group will appear before the Oireachtas' Joint Committee on Public Petitions.

The Save St Brigid's Hospital Group representatives will put their case for the reopening of the district hospital before the committee, which in September 2021 received a petition of more than 11,000 signatures opposing the hospital's closure.

St Brigid’s Hospital closed its doors to patients in April, 2020 shortly after being re-designated as a step down care unit for people recovering from Covid-19.

In December 2020, the HSE announced it wouldn’t be reopening as a district hospital as the building was no longer suitable due to new Covid-19 infection control standards.

The hospital’s closure was greeted with shock and protests in Carrick-on-Suir and its hinterland that culminated in the collecting of the petition in Carrick-on-Suir and surrounding communities in counties Waterford and Kilkenny as well as Tipperary.