The Hospital Action Committee (HAC) has chosen not to endorse any of the General Election candidates. Following a press conference on Monday morning in Roscommon Town where the candidates were quizzed on their health policies, the chairman of the HAC, Mr John McDermott, confirmed that the committee would not be supporting any individual party or candidate. He added that this decision was not as a result of the candidates’ submissions.

“We didn’t want to seen to be aligned with any particular policy or group,” he told the Roscommon Herald. Instead the HAC will continue to act as a neutral ‘watch dog’ for the patients of the county, but individual members of the committee may chose to support and canvass for candidates on a personal basis. When asked whether he would consider supporting a candidate, he replied that he would be making a decision on the matter on Monday evening.

“We discussed the option of endorsement but we decided ‘no, let’s get the information out there and let the people decide’,” he said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr McDermott asked the candidates to outline their specifics positions, give details on their red line issues in health, and to “forget about the history”.

“We are asking you to be very specific, that if you are in a position to be part of the next government, what kind of commitments are you going to give to the health services in County Roscommon in general, and particularly its emergency services? That’s the bottom line,” he said.