Committee established to oppose Hanly report

Opposition to the Hanly report on hospital services has stepped up a notch with the creation of a national steering committee to campaign against proposals in the report.

The 10- member committee will meet a number of times in the coming weeks to put together a strategy, aimed at retaining and developing local hospital services.

This follows the demonstration by up to 15,000 people in Nenagh on the matter yesterday.

Labour Senator Kathleen O'Meara, who is on the committee, says it has the power to be influential.

"It is a broad-ranging and potentially very powerful group. Within a matter of weeks we will be putting together a strategy to achieve our objective - which is to restore, retain and indeed develop local and general hospital services right around the country.”