An estimated 2,000 people turned out in Monaghan last night for a rally to oppose plans to further reduce services at Monaghan hospital. Earlier yesterday, two Fianna Fáil TDs for the area spoke out publicly for the first time against any downgrading of the hospital.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Brendan Smith said he had been in contact with Minister for Health Mary Harney and the Health Service Executive (HSE) with regard to the need to maintain a maximum level of services at Monaghan hospital.
He said he did not agree with the recommendations in the independent report into the death of Pat Joe Walsh, published last week, that all acute inpatient services be withdrawn from the hospital as soon as possible.
Speaking from his office in Dublin, he said: "I do not want to see any diminution of the existing services at Monaghan hospital".
The other Fianna Fáil TD for the area is Ceann Comhairle Rory O'Hanlon, himself a former health minister. He did not attend the rally but in a letter to its organisers said he had spoken at length to the Minister for Health and also to the head of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, and had stressed very strongly to them his view that the recommendations in the Pat Joe Walsh report should not be implemented.
He also stressed his view that the services currently available in Monaghan should not be further diminished. He said he could not attend the rally as it would be inappropriate for him, as Ceann Comhairle, to attend such meetings.
A number of those attending the rally at the Hillgrove hotel in the town said the sitting Fianna Fáil TDs and councillors should resign if they could not get the HSE to change its mind about withdrawing services from the hospital.
The Mayor of Monaghan, Robbie Gallagher, chaired the meeting. A Fianna Fáil councillor, he said he was opposed to the plan to downgrade the hospital. "In many ways if these proposals are implemented it will be the death knell of the hospital and we feel we can't stand by and let that happen," he said.
He said he was a general election candidate for Fianna Fáil last time out, but had made it clear to party headquarters that he would not let his name go forward next time unless the current hospital plan was abandoned.
Tony McKenna, a resident in Monaghan, said it was about time the Government got a wake-up call. "There's no point in them asking for more time to sort this out. The Government have had long enough," he said.
The country singer Big Tom McBride said there was always a hospital in Monaghan even when the economy wasn't what it is today. And now that the population was growing, "I think it's opening hospitals we should be rather than trying to close them", he said.
Mary McLoughlin from Clones said it was a total disgrace what was happening. "I think the people should have come out stronger long ago instead of coming out tonight when it's nearly too late," she said.
Local Independent TD Paudge Connolly said people would die on the roadside on their way to other hospitals if all acute services were removed from Monaghan.
Sinn Féin's health spokesman Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, also a local TD, accused the Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members in the constituency of standing idly by as Monaghan hospital was "pillaged of services".
Peadar McMahon, chair of the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance, said he was delighted with the turnout. "We are sending a strong message to Government that this plan is not acceptable to the people of Monahgan and it will hurt them in the ballot box unless it is reversed," he said.