Approximately 2,000 people gathered for a rally in Monaghan last night to protest at plans to further reduce services at the town's hospital.
A number of those attending the rally said sitting Fianna Fáil TDs and councillors should resign if they could not get the HSE to change its mind about withdrawing services from the hospital.
The meeting was chaired by the town's mayor, Robbie Gallagher. A Fianna Fáil councillor, he said he was opposed to the plan to downgrade the hospital. "In many ways if these proposals are implemented it will be the death knell of the hospital and we feel we can't stand by and let that happen," he said.
Local Independent TD Paudge Connolly said people would die on the roadside on their way to other hospitals if all acute services were removed from Monaghan.
Sinn Féin's health spokesman, Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, also a local TD, accused the Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members in the constituency of standing idly by as Monaghan hospital was "pillaged of services".
Earlier yesterday, two Fianna Fáil TDs for the area spoke out publicly for the first time against any downgrading of the hospital.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Brendan Smith said he did not agree with the recommendations in the independent report into the death of Pat Joe Walsh, published last week, that all acute inpatient services be withdrawn from the hospital as soon as possible.
The other Fianna Fáil TD for the area is Ceann Comhairle Rory O'Hanlon, himself a former health minister. He did not attend the rally, but in a letter to its organisers he said he told the Minister for Health and head of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm that the recommendations in the Pat Joe Walsh report should not be implemented.