Oireachtas committee seeks to quiz HSE on closure of Carrick-on-Suir hospital

Senior HSE officials are being invited to come before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Petitions to be quizzed over the closure of Carrick-on-Suir’s St Brigid’s Hospital.
The Committee has decided to invite the HSE to attend one of its upcoming meetings to address it on why the District Hospital was closed in 2020 in response to a petition of more than 11,000 signatures submitted to it last September.
The decision to issue the invitation was made at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee last Thursday where the Save St Brigid’s Hospital petition was discussed.
Tipperary Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne, who chairs the Oireachtas Joint Committee, said in the application to the committee the petitioner noted the level of public opposition to the decision to close St Brigid’s Hospital as shown by the 11,000 signatures collected from people across counties Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny.
“The Committee sought a reply from the HSE on the reasons for the closure which will now be forwarded to the petitioner for comment.
“As Chairman of the Committee, I called for the matter to be discussed further at committee level and recommended to members that the HSE be asked to attend.
“I am pleased to say that my request was agreed to, and an invitation will be sent in due course,” Deputy Browne added.
Carrick-on-Suir Cllr David Dunne of the Save St Brigid’s Hospital Action Group said the presentation of the petition before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Petitions was a “very good day” for their campaign.
He said the action group still hasn’t received a report from the HSE that adequately answers why St Brigid’s Hospital building was deemed unsuitable to continue as a district hospital and they hope this process will produce those answers.
The Sinn Fein councillor said the action group will be allowed put forward a representative to make the case for the reopening of St Brigid’s to the Petitions Committee and this representative may also be able to question the HSE during the hearing.
St Brigid’s Hospital closed its doors to patients in April, 2020 shortly after being redesignated 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 HSE is turning it into an out-patient community healthcare centre specialising in the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes.
The hospital’s closure was greeted with shock and deep opposition in Carrick-on-Suir and its hinterland. A series of protests last year culminated with the collection of the petition in Carrick-on-Suir and communities in its hinterland across counties Tipperary, Kilkenny and Waterford. The petition was submitted to Minister of State for Mental Health & Older People Mary Butler outside Leinster House on September 22 last year by representatives of the Save St Brigid’s Hospital Action Group.
The petition’s hand over was accompanied by a protest at the gates of the Dáil attended by around 60 people including former Tipperary TD Seamus Healy and Carrick councillors Kieran Bourke, who first proposed the petition, and Cllr Dunne.
Oireachtas members from Tipperary, Kilkenny and Waterford and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also attended the protest in support of the campaign.

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