I, too, send my sympathy and support to the people and communities of west Waterford and east Cork following yesterday's devastating floods.

I raise the issue of dedicated hospice care beds. We used to have three lovely hospice suites in St. Brigid's District Hospital, Carrick-on-Suir, but they were closed unceremoniously with the hospital. We were then promised four beds for the town of Clonmel, which has 18,500 people and with another 10,000 to 15,000 in the hinterlands. Now we find we are getting one bed in the new 50-bed St. Anthony's unit and no designated room for the families. There is one room for families but the unit will hold 50 patients when it opens. We have been sold a pup. The wonderful people on the local committee and community group have fundraised. They are meeting again on Monday morning. They are devastated that the biggest inland town in Ireland has no dedicated hospice bed. We are getting one now without any dedicated family room or suite. While we have two in Clogheen and one in Tipperary town, Clonmel needs hospice beds for palliative care. I thank the nurses and palliative care teams for all the work they do.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is heavily invested in and strongly supportive of the palliative care movement and hospices right across the country. Hospice care is one of the best things that is happening in healthcare in Ireland. A new community nursing unit is being built in Clonmel and it will include dedicated palliative care beds. There will be more than one bed; so far, there are two. A draft national palliative care strategy has been developed. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and I are working closely together to make sure palliative care beds are available not just in the Deputy's area, where they are, of course, needed, but right across the country.