Between 500 and 600 people Kick off new Campaign to save Navan Hospital

Between 500 and 600 people braved the rain in Navan on today (Saturday 4th) to protest against the closing of Our Lady’s Hospital in the town. A number of speakers addressed the crowd including Tony FitzPatrick from the INMO, Noleen O Donaghue from SIPTU, Cllr Joe Reilly and Sinn Féin Deputy Mayor Peadar Tóibín.   According to Cllr Peadar Tóibín who organised the rally, ‘the hatchet job carried out by Fianna Fáil/HSE has left Navan Hospital as we know it practically dead.

‘At the last general election, Minister Dempsey promised to ‘go to the wire’ for the county hospital. However just this week when asked what he thought of the latest cutbacks Dempsey declared that he was completely unaware of what was happening’. It seems that Little Lord Dempsey is swanning around in his helicopters and luxury jets while the sick people of Meath can hitch a ride to Drogheda’.

‘We are being told by the HSE that these cuts in services are for our own good. We are told that they are for ‘Patient Safety’. Well tell that to the men and women who are working below ground in Tara Mines. Tell that to the hundreds of emergencies that will be driven past this perfectly good hospital every year’. 

Many local doctors spoke out with passion and energy this week, clearly stating that the action to close the hospital will put patient safety in jeopardy. According to Cllr Tóibín ‘Meath has the lowest provision of doctors in the country and not a single one of the 12 Primary Care teams promised for Meath, has been established’. The promised new Regional Hospital for Navan has also come to nothing, Dermot Ahern Louth TD has looked across the Cabinet table and told Dempsey where to go’.

Cllr Tóibín stated that, ‘even under the HSE’s plans none of these service closures were supposed to be implemented until the necessary investment had been made in other hospitals to take the over flow of patients. However no investment has been made in these neighbouring hospitals. People from Meath will spend longer on waiting lists and will be forced onto trolleys in hospitals already full to the gills. The closures of services at Navan Hospital are not for ‘patient safety’ they are a threat to ‘patient safety. I am calling here today that in the interest of ‘patient safety’ Patient Safety’ FF and the HSE should be closed down’.  

‘We’re told we have no money for the hospital, that we have to cut back. €24 billion is being spent to bail out the stock holders and the investors of Anglo Irish Bank. The money being wasted on Anglo alone would build 48 regional hospitals in the state. This week does not have to be the end of Navan hospital. This can be start of the campaign to save it. We in Sinn Féin have put the work in here today to get the campaign started. But now we need to build a broad coalition of community groups, local organisations and clubs that will grow this campaign until its heard loud and clear at the cabinet table'.

Meath has stayed silent for too long. We the citizens of Meath are not powerless, worthless people at the end of the political food chain, to be dictated to by the government on how our money is spent. The government works for us not the other way around. We have a choice, we allow the slow death of our health services or we get up off knees and fight for Navan Hospital'. All those looking to help the campaign for the hospital are asked to contact Peadar on 087 2707985 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '

Sign the peition!

A Chara

The Navan to Dublin Rail line was first promised to Meath in 1994 by Noel Dempsey. He has dined out politically on this promise for over 15 years. The only constant throughout those years is that each deadline for delivery has been broken.

Recently the money for the rail lines was dropped from the governments capital infrastructural plan. If the money is not in the government's capital investment plan where is it going to come from? Is an increasing desperate Dempsey just looking to make it across the line in the 2012 General Election? If the money exits for the project, its quite simple, Dempsey, Show Meath the Money.

This project is central to the development of the county. We will not let Gravy Train Dempsey off the hook for one second until it is delivered. Join the campaign for the Rail Line. Sign the petition.

Is mise

Deputy Mayor Of Navan, Peadar Tóibín


Please sign the petition and email it to as my contacts as possible

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/navantodublinrailline/

Death of OLH by a Thousand Cuts

Sinn Fein Cllr Joe Reilly, a member of the Dublin North East Regional Health Forum has described the most recent reports of
the removel of surgical services from Our Lady's Hospital to Drogheda as the "Death of OLH by a Thousand HSE Cuts"
 
He said: "the pending announcement by the HSE of the moving of surgical services from OLH to an already overcrowded Drogheda
has being made despite huge medical concerns being pressed by 47 local GP's and other medical professionals in Meath.  The HSE while
stating that the move is in the interest of patients have failed to produce any medical report justifing the decision. Indeed local medical professionals are of the belief that patient safety is being placed danger by the proposed move".
 
"When this move is considered in conjunction with the proposed closure of the 24 bed psychiatric unit in OLH by 2012, the closure
of the A&E and the decision for the ambulance to bypass OLH and go direct to Drogheda, points to huge crisis in our health service
and desprate attempt to solve this crisis by jamming all services into an unsuitable and overcrowded Drogheda and
killing off OLH by a thousand cuts".
 
"The statement by HSE management appear more akin to the utterings of a multi-national corporation CEO than those of people
responsible for the provision of a public health system".

Read more: Death of OLH by a Thousand Cuts

Tóibín launches proposal to enable the young unemployed to become entrepreneurs

Sinn Féin Cllr Peadar Tóibín today launched a set of proposals aimed at making self employment a realistic option for young people.  He highlighted the need improved social insurance safety nets for the self employed as a key change to encourage the young unemployed to become entrepreneurs. Part of the solution to the epidemic of unemployment amongst under the 25’s, needs to helping these young people to become entrepreneurs.  Today we are setting out a number of steps that we believe would make a real difference.
 
“More and more young people are leaving Ireland.  If this continues, the ability of the economy to recover will be undermined as we will have exported all our young skilled workers. “Just 1.3% of workers aged between 15 and 24 are self employed as most young people have neither the confidence nor the practical support to start up their own enterprises.   Setting up their own businesses needs to be made a real option for the young unemployed.  I know young people who would love to stay in Ireland and build their own business but just don’t see this as possible at the moment.  New businesses fit for a new economy needed to be created – the young unemployed  are the people best placed to creative innovative modern business that can thrive into the future.

Read more: Tóibín launches proposal to enable the young unemployed to become entrepreneurs

'Gravy Train Dempsey should pay back money' – Tóibín

Sinn Féin Cllr  Peadar Tóibín has condemned the Transport Minister Noel Dempsey for using the Government jet and a chauffeur driven Ministerial car to get to the MacGill Summer School in Donegal last month. Minister Noel Dempsey used the government jet and his ministerial car to attend a summer school. He used the luxury Gulfstream IV jet, which costs €7,890 per hour to fly from Dublin to Derry instead. When he landed his garda driver was on hand to pick him up in his ministerial car after having driven 247km from Dublin. Cllr Tóibín said the Minister’s actions were particularly disgraceful given that he was travelling to Donegal to take part in a debate on the need to change political culture in Ireland.

Read more: 'Gravy Train Dempsey should pay back money' – Tóibín

‘Dempsey, Show Meath the Money’

Deputy Mayor of Navan Peadar Tóibín has demanded that the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey ‘Show Meath the Money’. The statement was made after the Minister and Meath TD stated that the Navan to Dublin Rail line would go ahead after all. This is despite the funding for the project not being included in the Government’s revised Infrastructural Plan which was launched on Monday.

Cllr Tóibín has condemned Noel Dempsey’s handling of the project. ‘The Navan to Dublin Rail line was first promised to Meath in 1994 by Noel Dempsey. Indeed he has dined out politically on this promise for over 15 years. The only constant throughout those years is that each deadline for delivery has been broken. It is no wonder that the people of Meath are sceptical at Dempsey’s latest promise'.   

‘Why would a hard pressed Cowen leave out the funding for the rail line from the latest infrastructural plan? Does anyone really believe for one second that if Fianna Fail were going to go ahead with the project they would hide the project under a bushel? If the money is not in the plan where is it going to come from? Is an increasing desperate Dempsey just looking to make it across the line in the 2012 General Election? If the money exits for the project, its quite simple, Show Meath the Money’.

 ‘This project is central to the development of the county. We will not let Dempsey off the hook for one second until it is delivered. If he cannot deliver for Meath he should stand aside’.