"Government Using Covid-19 As Smokescreen To Betray The People Of Carrick-On-Suir" - Eddie Reade
Eddie Reade has accused the Dublin government of using the Covid-19 health emergency as a smokescreen to mislead and betray the people of Carrick-on-Suir. He made his comments in response to formal confirmation from the HSE that it does not intend to resume either respite or end-of-life services at St Brigid’s Hospital in the town.
The Éirígí representative for South Tipperary and Waterford said, “When the Covid-19 emergency began the HSE designated St Brigid’s as a step-down facility for people recovering from the virus. This required the temporary suspension of existing respite and hospice services - something which people understood and were willing to accept in the context of a national public health emergency.
However, many people, including myself, were deeply suspicious of the government’s long-term plans for the hospital - a suspicion that was based on years of experience of successive governments downgrading services at the hospital.
Eddie Reade (left) pictured at St Brigid’s on Saturday, December 12th
By May, it was clear that St Brigid’s was barely being used as a Covid facility. At that point myself and others began to ask the HSE and out local elected representatives for information relating to the long-term plans for the hospital. The answers we got, or more accurately the lack of answers, convinced us that the long-term future of current services was under threat.
So we took to the streets in early June to demand answers and guarantees about future services, to the anger of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail who accused us of being alarmist and scare-mongering.
The simple fact is that the government has used Covid-19 as a smokescreen to first mislead and then betray the people of Carrick-on-Suir and the surrounding communities. From the outset they never had any intention of returning respite and end-of-life services to the hospital.
It won’t be lost on the people of the area that the government has used a public health emergency as cover to permanently close a critical piece of our local public health service. And it won’t be lost on them that they same people who accused us of scaremongering five months ago are now trying to position themselves as defenders of St Brigid’s.
Despite what the government and the HSE might think, the fight to keep services at St Brigid’s is not lost - it’s only beginning. Up to 350 people attended the most recent protest last Saturday in the town and we’ll be back on the streets this Saturday again.
I’d ask anyone who cares about St Brigid’s or indeed the future of a town which is being slowly stripped of work and public services to come along to the community protest at 2pm at the gates of St Brigid’s on Saturday (December 19).”