Open correspondence to local TDs – 24.1.2012

Preamble:

Dear Mr Fahy

The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly TD, has asked me to thank you for your recent correspondence inviting him to meet with a delegation from Skibereen Town Council and West Cork SOS to discuss the ambulance service in the area.

Unfortunately due to a very busy schedule of Government & Departmental business, the Minister regrets that he will not be in a position to accede to your request.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Doran
Private Secretary

Subsequent correspondence to local TDs:

Dear Deputies,

Forwarding email from Minister of Health’s Secretary received after seventeen weeks and several reminders declining to meet a delegation from WCSOS and Skibbereen Town Council because he is too busy. It is notable that he could find many days to be seen on TV canvassing with Jim Mitchell in the Presidential Election campaign but can find no time to hear the concerns of the people of West Cork.

This attitude of the Minister is probably due to the lack of support for the people of West Cork shown by the inaction of the three local Deputies and gives rise to the local comments that when there was only one Fianna Fail Deputy in West Cork, he succeeded in keeping Bantry Hospital open but now with three Deputies, even the Local Authority cannot have a delegation received from them and the genuinely worried people of the area by a Minister, when their very lives are threatened by the HSE/NAS.

On behalf of WCSOS and Skibbereen Town Council, I make one final plea to you to request and insist that the Minister receive such a delegation and without having to wait for seventeen weeks only to receive a refusal. It is high time you all made a better effort to support those that elected you and restore some dignity and credulity to your positions as representatives of the people of West Cork.

Kind regards,
Frank Fahy
Mayor, Skibbereen Town Council
Chairman, WestCorkSOS.com
087 8336882