Audio: Eamon Gilmore’s pre-election Roscommon hospital promise

It turns out that Tanaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore made pre-election promises that emergency services at Roscommon County Hospital would be maintained on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis.

The above audio clip with Gilmore was recorded during an interview on the Joe Finnegan Show on Shannonside FM last September.

Just ten months on, and five months into the Government term of Fine Gael and Labour, the Accident & Emergency services at Roscommon County Hospital have been binned.

The emergency department in Roscommon closed on Monday morning, with patients requiring urgent treatment to be transferred to other hospitals in Connacht.

It's not all terrible news for sick people in that part of the world, though. There is still a unit at Roscommon. As long you're suffering from an injury, a minor injury, you should be alright. If you're an adult.

It's sort of like a  first-aid cabin for over-18s.

Anyway, what do you think? Did Labour and Eamon Gilmore just say whatever they thought would get them into power? Or is this just proof that the financial problems are much worse than they thought last year?