TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has said he will not be attending tomorrow’s Connacht football final when his home county of Mayo face defending champion Roscommon.
The Roscommon Hospital Action Committee is expected to stage a peaceful protest before the match in Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon town, to highlight its opposition to last Monday’s closure of the emergency department at the county hospital.
Speaking to reporters in Galway yesterday, Mr Kenny, speaking in Irish, said he intended to visit his children, who were at Irish college and who he had not seen for three weeks. “Anyway I never mix . . . I always go to matches to enjoy them,” he said, adding, in English: “Family first, sport second.”
The action committee has said its protest at the football final will be peaceful and is not intended to disrupt the match in any way.
It has pledged to continue its campaign to have the decision to close the emergency department reversed. Earlier this week, it emerged that both Mr Kenny and Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore had given commitments when in opposition during the general election campaign to maintain services at Roscommon.
Minister for Health James Reilly gave a written commitment to retain and develop services at Roscommon before the election.
The HSE said that since last Monday, 26 patients have been taken to hospital in different locations from Roscommon: 11 to Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe; six to the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar; four to Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar; three to Sligo General Hospital and two to University Hospital Galway.