Lifford March 'only the beginning'

Pearse Doherty

Thousands of people turned up at a Save Lifford Hospital rally in Donegal on Sunday. Speaking in front of a crowd of 3,500 people Senator Pearse Doherty said a concerted campaign would be needed to keep Lifford Hospital open.
“There comes a time for everyone when they can take no more,” Doherty said. “There comes a time for every community when they must shout stop. Today is that day for the community of Lifford. Your presence in your thousands here has ensured that one message, one voice, one demand has filled the streets of Lifford and that is Hands of our Hospital. “We all know the value of this hospital, the services it provides, the excellent staff and the high quality of care. We equally know that the building needs financial investment to ensure that our patients and staff have access to a facility that is fit for purpose in the 21st century. But unfortunately this Fianna Fáil government is willing to close this hospital down instead of investing some of our money into bringing it up to the necessary standards.”
Doherty asked the crowd to imagine how the government would be responding if the hospital was a bank. “Then we would hear one government politician after the other lining up to tell us how it can’t be allowed to close. We would have to listen to them preach that this facility is vital to the very survival of our society, we would watch them pump billions of tax payers money into it in an attempt to keep it open, while they ensured that the staff of its board were among the best paid in the country.”
“This is the time to stand up for your self, this is the time to stand up for each other, this is the time to stand by Lifford Community Hospital.”