Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2025-09-25 ============================================================ Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny We are looking forward to the new community nursing unit in Thomastown. It is being completed at the moment. It will be a purpose-built facility to support the older population of south and central Kilkenny. It will support discharges from St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, and University Hospital Waterford. It will be a lifeline for many and a game-changer for the region. When does the Minister envisage this new community nursing unit in Thomastown will be fully completed and operational? I am aware workforce planning is progressing across all staff disciplines to ensure the required competence and skill mix of staff is in place to facilitate the operational schedule but there are vacancies in speech and language therapists in Thomastown that have not been filled for the past two years, so much so that it is on its brochure that it currently has vacancies in speech and language therapy. Obviously, that cannot continue. I am looking for assurances from the Minister that this will be looked into as a matter of urgency. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-09-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-09-25