Hospital Staff
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister of State. I am glad to hear that the staffing will remain separate to St. Luke's and it will not draw from it, because, as the Minister of State mentioned, there were concerns around that. It is good to have that confirmation that it will not be drawn from the same pool.
I am delighted that work is progressing. I hope that we open the unit as soon as possible because the key thing is it will also alleviate a lot of pressure on St. Luke's accident and emergency department as well as a consequence of Carlow having its own injury unit.
On the question of the two outstanding emergency department consultants, I recognise the Minister of State is saying staffing and spending have increased but our whole metric around staffing has to be around safe staff levels. The HSE faced underspending powers in 2020 during austerity. I recognise a huge amount of money has gone into it but the challenge is that we still have two outstanding positions in accident and emergency - the third lowest ratio in the country despite the catchment area being so huge. That is a risk for patients who are coming in and it is a risk for staff. Those posts have been promised and they have still not been delivered. I cannot understand. When will they be delivered? I suppose we need clarity on that because it is dangerous for people.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24