New health unit unused because it has no staff

MEDICAL facilities costing approximately €25m remain almost entirely unused in Clonmel because the Department of Health can’t pay the €3.2m additional staffing costs to open the unit.

The empty unit could cause major embarrassment to Minister for Health Micheál Martin as he is due to attend a ceremony at the Clonmel hospital in nine days' time where the facilities will be re-named as South Tipperary General Hospital.

The unit, now lying idle, was first announced in 1995, when Michael Noonan was health minister.