Joint Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen debate -
Thursday, 23 May 2024

Decisions on Public Petitions Received

An Cathaoirleach

I propose that the petitions considered by the committee at this meeting and previous meetings may be published and that the replies from the Departments and other bodies may also be published. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We have three petitions for consideration today as follows. The first, No. P00034/24, entitled "Future of the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Unit, Roscrea", was submitted by Mr. Donnacha Delaney. This petition asks that the Government provide the HSE with the requisite capital funding to build a new long-stay residential care unit for older persons in Roscrea in order to maintain and-or increase current long-stay bed capacity in the town before any change to the current service provision offered by the HSE's Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Unit are implemented.

The secretariat wrote to the Department of Health and the HSE seeking a response advising of their views within 14 days. The secretariat received a response from the Department of Health on 9 April 2024. It also received a response from the HSE on 11 April 2024. The recommendations are: that we publish the response from the Department of Health; that the correspondence from the Department be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days; that the correspondence from the HSE be forwarded to the petitioner for information; and that we write to the Minister for Health, the CEO of the HSE and, once again, the Secretary General at the Department of Health because the response received is not acceptable. The committee would like these people to provide a more comprehensive response outlining the long-term plans for the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Unit on the basis of the new plans proposed for St. Conlon’s Community Nursing Unit in Nenagh and Mount Carmel in Roscrea. Do members have any views?

Deputy Pat Buckley

I agree with what the Cathaoirleach said.

An Cathaoirleach

I am familiar with this situation. The Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Unit is another place in County Tipperary, like St. Brigid's in Carrick-on-Suir, that is being closed down without any consideration for the elderly people there. As one of the responses indicates, the HSE has advised that the potential acquisition of the Mount Carmel nursing home site in Roscrea is being considered in this context. We are also told older person services in north Tipperary will also be enhanced by the new state-of-the-art 50-bed community nursing unit in Nenagh that will open in due course. As we have just heard during the public meeting, this 50-bed unit is being taken over as step-down facility for University Hospital Limerick. The Dean Maxwell unit is gone again from the hands of the people in Roscrea. We had heard about Mount Carmel, but this seems to have gone off their radar. We will go with the recommendations and we will get information back from the petitioner. We will see where we go from there at a future meeting. Is that agreed?

Deputy Pat Buckley

That is definitely agreed.

An Cathaoirleach

No. P00036/24, entitled "Action needed for derelict buildings in Youghal, Co. Cork", was submitted by Mrs. Irene Karrouze. This petition relates to a request to carry out the promised remedial work on 30 Friar Street, Youghal, County Cork, in order to make the building safe and to use section 9 of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 to ensure that every owner of a vacant or derelict building in Youghal knows it is their duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the land or property does not become, or continue to be, derelict. The secretariat wrote to Cork County Council seeking a response advising of its views within 14 days. The secretariat received a response from Cork County Council on 25 April 2024. The recommendation is that we publish the response from Cork County Council and that the correspondence from Cork County Council be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views?

Deputy Pat Buckley

I agree with that. There was an article in the Irish Examiner on derelict buildings last week. It will be interesting to see what the response of Mrs. Karrouze will be. We will definitely come back and revisit this. It is a trend happening all over the country.

An Cathaoirleach

No. P00037/24, entitled "Mandate life-saving measures for babies born at 22 weeks in all Irish hospitals", was submitted by Miss Dympna Whelan. She states:

We believe every baby deserves this chance regardless of their gestational age or weight. It's time for all Irish hospitals to offer life-saving measures to babies born at just 22 weeks ...

The action requested by petitioner is to mandate life saving measures for babies born alive and breathing at 22 weeks because her baby was alive for 19 minutes and no saving measures were taken.

The secretariat wrote to the Department of Health and the HSE seeking a response advising of their views within 14 days. The secretariat received a response from Department of Health on 1 May 2024. The secretariat also received a response from the HSE on 2 May 2024. The recommendations are that we publish the response from the Department of Health and the response from the HSE and that the correspondence from the Department of Health and the HSE be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views?

Deputy Pat Buckley

I agree with the recommendations.

An Cathaoirleach

Is that agreed? Agreed.

That concludes our consideration of public petitions for this afternoon. I invite members of the public to submit petitions via our online portal, which is available at petitions.oireachtas.ie. A petition may be addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas on a matter of general public concern or interest or an issue of public policy.

Are there any other issues that members want to raise? No. I want to make people aware that when we say we ask petitioners for comment within 14 days it gives them a chance to receive the responses from various Departments and come back with other issues or look for clarity.

I thank Martha Dowling, Ciaran McConway, Barbara Hughes, Alex Alino and all the staff for the amount of work they do for the committee. They get through a mountain of work and we only see a small bit of it at the public meetings.

The joint committee adjourned at 3.39 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, 30 May 2024.