14 September 2022
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Health News
The Joint Committee on Public Petitions will meet tomorrow, Thursday, 15 September, to resume consideration of a petition on saving services at a health centre in east Cork.
The meeting at 1.30pm in Committee Room 4 of Leinster House will hear from representatives of the Health Service Executive (HSE) on Public Petition Number P00042/21 ‘Saving the services of the Owenacurra Centre, Midleton, east Cork’ from Ms Joanna Curtis.
Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Martin Browne said: “The Committee heard details of this petition in July from the Save Owenacurra Campaign. Owenacurra is the only HSE long-stay and respite care Adult Mental Health facility in the east Cork area and in June 2021 the HSE announced its plans close the centre. We will now hear the HSE response to the petition from the Chief Officer of Cork Kerry Community Healthcare.
“The Committee will also consider a number of other petitions, including a ‘Call for a public inquiry into Covid-19 residential care deaths’; ‘Research on Topical Steroid Withdrawal’; ‘Amendment to Organisation of Working Time Act 1997’; and ‘That a WW1 memorial stone be erected in Clondalkin Park as soon as practicable to commemorate those from Clondalkin who died in the First World War’. There are also petitions seeking to ‘Reopen Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Emergency Departments’ and ‘Introduce a procedure for recalling MEPs’.”
The Joint Committee on Public Petitions is a standing Committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas and has 11 Members, seven from the Dáil and four from the Seanad.
The meeting in the Committee Room 4 can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.