Martin Daly: Demands action on €8m Roscommon rehab delay
Martin Daly visits Roscommon University Hospital to press for delivery of a long-promised €8 million rehabilitation unit first pledged in 2015. He warns the HSE has twice removed the project from its capital plan and says there is an unacceptable lack of urgency to provide these specialist beds.
What was promised and why it matters
Martin Daly outlines that the Roscommon rehab unit was budgeted at €8 million and intended to serve people with acquired brain injury, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, spinal injuries and related conditions. He says the facility addresses a recognised shortfall of rehabilitation beds in the HSE West North West and would allow patients to access care closer to home rather than travelling to acute tertiary centres.
Accountability and next steps
Daly describes repeated removals and restorations of the project in the HSE capital plan and says he has repeatedly raised the matter with officials. He commits to speaking with the Minister and HSE Estates again and to pressing for concrete progress on planning and delivery so the promised beds become available.
Local impact and patient access
The speech emphasises Roscommon University Hospital's role in providing regional services outside major hospitals, and how a functioning rehab unit could support recovery, social participation and return to work for people with neurological injuries and illnesses. Daly frames the delay as a policy and planning failure that has real consequences for patients and families in the region.
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I'm back again to Rathcombe University Hospital and the promised new rehab unit that was promised in 2015 with an attached budget of €8 million, twice removed from the HSE capital plan without any discussion, twice put back on after lobbying for myself and my office, and now a real lack of urgency about providing those places. This new rehab looks after acquired brain injury, either stroke or traumatic, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, spinal injuries and a host of other things. There's a dirt of beds in the HSE West North West and that's recognised and really it's something that is needed and desired and has been promised with the budget and there seems to be a lack of urgency by the HSE to progress this unit. The Deputy Martin Daly has raised, and this is not his first time, the issue of the promised rehab unit in Rathcombe University Hospital and the lack of urgency attending to it. I will talk to the Minister again and we'll come back to you and to the HSE Estates to see if we can progress this. One of the values of Rathcombe University Hospital has been the degree to which it can provide a range of services outside of the acute tertiary centres that makes life far easier for people in the region to access these services in a much easier way. Rehab is so important, particularly in terms of neurological issues or in terms of access and so on, that it can do an awful lot in terms of enabling a person to get back into participation in society and work, depending on the circumstances, governing an individual who requires access to a rehab unit of that kind.
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