Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 9 Jun 2015

Vol. 240 No. 7

Commencement Matters

Accident and Emergency Services Provision

Senator John Whelan

I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar. I am pleased and relieved to see him here in person.

The midlands, including all of County Laois, are in turmoil owing to the speculation, scaremongering, doubt and confusion surrounding the future status of the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise and, in particular, its accident and emergency department.

I do not have to spell out the context of this issue to the Minister as it has been ongoing for 30 years. I have hardly got up at any stage during those years without there being some doubt, confusion and speculation about the status and future of the hospital which for years has been the poor relation and playing second fiddle for all sorts of reason and sometimes not least because of political bias and interference. Be that as it may be, the hospital has been underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced and, therefore, undermined. I thought, however, that we were coming out the other end and that we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel, thanks in no small part to the Minister's personal and direct intervention. It is, unfortunately, groundhog day for the hospital and we are back in the throes of not knowing where we stand or what the future holds. This is not fair to the staff, community and those who desperately require and need the services of the hospital daily. While it was not a problem caused by the Minister, it falls to him and the Government to address and solve it and not let it linger on.

In January the new CEO of the hospital group confirmed categorically that Portlaoise hospital was secure, that it would be retained as a model 3 hospital and that its 24/7 accident and emergency department would continue and was safe and secure. Last week, however, out of the blue, with no warning, like a bombshell, it was announced in the media that there was some doubt about the immediate term prospects of the 24/7 accident and emergency department. I cannot tell the Minister about the shock, distress, disbelief and anxiety this has caused throughout the community. The hospital has a population catchment of approximately 200,000. It is not, therefore, a local issue or a local hospital. It serves Athy, Monasterevin and Rathangan, as well as counties Carlow and Offaly.

It is a resourcing issue. If it is a question of staff, emergency consultants and nurses, let us address it in that way and once and for all stop running away from it and saying it is not a resourcing issue. No hospital in the country could bear the forensic scrutiny and microscopic investigations that have been conducted at Portlaoise hospital as a result of the tragic and unfortunate deaths in the maternity unit. I am glad to say, however, that most people now believe the Minister has vigorously and comprehensively addressed that issue.

I am not here to make an emotional appeal to save the hospital. We have a credible, coherent and constructive case to make for the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise which is based on merit, medical grounds, clinical need and community requirements. It has the only accident and emergency department between Naas and Limerick. The ambulance network is not in place to start transferring patients, as suggested, to other accident and emergency departments. The Minister has seen such cases this week at St. James's Hospital, in Tallaght, Limerick and elsewhere. Is it proposed that we compound these problems by diverting between 30,000 and 40,000 cases from Portlaoise because that is the number of cases at the accident and emergency department there? It is one of the busiest accident and emergency departments in the country outside the capital and other cities. It is located near the intersection of the M7 and M8 motorways. Some 21,500 vehicles pass through Portlaoise on a daily basis and it is twice that figure at weekends. There are some 2,000 births in the maternity unit annually, which means that between five and ten babies are born there every day. As the Minister knows, babies do not always choose to come between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. They are born at all hours of the night and at weekends.

The hospital is located across the road from two high security prisons, with 1,200 prison staff. The Prison Officers Association is incensed and cannot believe the proposition that the 24/7 accident and emergency department in Portlaoise hospital be closed, given the security, health and safety and cost implications in having to transfer staff who have been attacked or stabbed by prisoners or prisoners to other hospitals.

I want the Minister to bring some clarity to the issue. I am not saying he has to have an absolute solution today, but we need a clear plan and commitment to the future of the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise. The starting point for service provision and patient safety has to be an absolute commitment to the bedrock that is the 24/7 accident and emergency department. Not everyone-----

An Cathaoirleach

The Senator is over time.

Senator John Whelan

I will finish on this point. Everyone cannot choose to go private and skip the queue to go to whatever new modern newfangled private clinics are being set up around the place.

The people of the midlands require a 24/7 accident and emergency service at Portlaoise hospital. I am appealing to the Minister to clarify the situation.

Minister for Health (Deputy Leo Varadkar)

I thank Senator Whelan for raising this matter, which gives me an opportunity to update the House on our plans for the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise. I appreciate the Senator's support for the hospital through the years and his interest in the matter. I am committed to securing and further developing the role of Portlaoise hospital as a constituent hospital within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, which includes St. James's Hospital, Tallaght hospital, Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, Naas General Hospital, and the Coombe hospital. Any change to services in Portlaoise will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner, taking account of existing patient flow demands in other hospitals and the need to develop particular services at Portlaoise in the context of overall service reorganisation in the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. Any decisions will be made on the basis of maximising patient safety and patient outcomes, not financial considerations or political bias or interference, to use the Senator's words. That will not happen.

In recent months, substantial investment and enhancement measures have been put in place to ensure a safer level of services at Portlaoise hospital. Maternity services are being upgraded following the agreement of a memorandum of understanding between the Health Service Executive and the Coombe to provide a managed clinical maternity network within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. This will provide for the delivery of a single maternity service over two sites, Portlaoise and the Coombe, with clinical governance led by the latter. Agreement has been reached on the recruitment of two additional obstetricians, one of whom will be the new clinical lead for the Portlaoise hospital maternity service, two neonatologists, to be shared across both sites, some additional clinical and allied health support, and a broad agreement on shared services and information technology. An implementation plan in this regard will be put in place in the coming months. Further improvements in Portlaoise include the provision of a number of additional consultant posts in anaesthetics, surgery, emergency medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics and general medicine, and 16 midwifery posts. In addition, it is intended to provide a new acute medical admissions unit and expand day surgery at the hospital.

The hospital group CEO has set out clearly what is being proposed at Portlaoise, with maternity, acute medical and paediatric services to continue and elective day surgery likely to be expanded. Patient safety and patient outcomes must be the first consideration. Last week, the HSE advised that complex surgery at Portlaoise - bowel surgery, in particular - will be transferred to St. James's or Tullamore, as the volumes at Portlaoise are too low to maintain the requisite expertise of the clinical staff. Indeed, the Health Information and Quality Authority report specifically criticises the HSE for recruiting additional colorectal surgeons at Portlaoise when patient numbers were not sufficient to allow those staff to maintain their skills. Patient volumes are very often a consideration, not just staff and resources. One must have both and be able to sustain both. As a result of this change, we will see the discontinuation of undifferentiated surgical cases that present at Portlaoise emergency department.

The important point to understand is that the work is being done to strengthen services in Portlaoise from a patient safety and quality perspective and to ensure services currently provided by the hospital which are not viable are discontinued and those which are viable are safety assured and adequately resourced. This is in keeping with the recommendations of the HIQA report into services at Portlaoise and reports on other hospitals in the past. I am confident these changes will improve services for patients at Portlaoise.

In respect of Portlaoise emergency department specifically, it receives, as the Senator noted, between 30,000 and 40,000 attendances per year. There is no question, therefore, of its being closed. The only question that has emerged, as raised by the CEO, is whether 24-hour services are sustainable. No decision in this regard has been made or can yet be made. In the case of Navan, for example, surgical services are no longer provided, but the hospital continues to offer a 24-hour emergency department for medical patients and those with minor injuries. I strongly agree with the Senator that any proposal to end 24-hour services at Portlaoise could not be advanced without a clear and credible plan to provide additional capacity at Tullamore, Naas and Tallaght, which are already very overstretched.

Senator John Whelan

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply and for departing from his script to deal specifically with the accident and emergency service issue. There is an incontrovertible case to be put regarding the retention, in absolute terms and in perpetuity, of a 24/7 accident and emergency service at Portlaoise, based on patient safety concerns, patient demand and the requirement to serve a huge population catchment.

Regardless of the alternative ambulance services put in place, I do not believe it would be possible for that volume of care provided in a 24 hours, seven days a week accident and emergency department to be diverted to any of the other hospitals as is being suggested.

I beg to differ with the Minister on one point. I believe the group chief executive officer added to the confusion and created a great deal of anxiety when he went on the airwaves, without consultation with anyone, and certainly not the public representatives or the community, and speculated as to the future prospects for 24 hours, seven days a week accident and emergency services. As far as I am concerned it would be an untenable position to consider phasing out those services or returning them on an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. basis. It is no longer an accident and emergency department unless it is operated on a 24 hours, seven days a week basis.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

There are a few things to bear in mind. I know the Senator, and all the Senators, not just in Laois but in every constituency, would love me to be able to give a guaranteed, cast-iron commitment that services will remain on a 24 hours, seven days a week basis. That is not something I can give to anyone about any hospital in the country. Medicine changes over time and even when decisions are made, there can be difficulty finding senior staff. It is not tenable in the longer term for us to continue to provide services with locum doctors, temporary doctors and doctors who are not fully trained to do the job they are expected to do. That is a problem throughout the country.

The international standard now for an emergency department is very different from what it was in the past. Essentially, that is a department that can take undifferentiated patients who have anything wrong with them and deal with them. For example, that is someone with a major head injury who needs neurosurgery or someone with a major injury to their chest who needs cardiothoracic surgery. Portlaoise hospital has never provided those services and it has never been what we would now describe as a major trauma centre or an emergency department in an international context. In Scotland there are only two of them. In London there are only four, and the catchment area required for that type of emergency department, a major trauma centre, is a population of about 1 million. Obviously, that would mean four, five or six in Ireland, but no one is suggesting for a second that we have only four, five or six emergency departments in Ireland. However, we will have to look at emergency medicine and reconfigure it to ensure we have the right services in different places. The only guarantee I can give people is that any decisions will be made based on what is best in terms of patient safety and clinical outcomes, and not based on financial considerations, political bias or political interference. None of those things will happen.

Home Help Service

An Cathaoirleach

Senator Darragh O'Brien has the second matter. The Senator has four minutes.

Senator Darragh O'Brien

Is that all?

An Cathaoirleach

Yes.

Senator Darragh O'Brien

I thought we had extended the time. I thank the Minister for Health for coming to the House to take this question. He is very familiar with this issue of the home help gratuity payments, and I have written to him on a number of occasions. According to my file, the first time I raised this issue was on 12 March 2013 with the Minister's predecessor and in writing to the HSE. In brief, this relates to a Labour Court recommendation that home help workers, many of whom are low paid, be granted a gratuity payment based on their years of service in lieu of pension entitlements. That was for home help services that were majority funded by the HSE. This would have a positive effect on hundreds, if not thousands, of workers throughout the country.

The issue came to my attention when two ladies in the north Dublin area, Patricia Greene and Mary Hughes, raised the matter with me, and I have pursued it ever since. The reasons we were given, which I accepted, were that while no one disagreed with the recommendation and the Government should see it through, a letter going back to 27 March 2013 stated that due to current financial constraints, the position remained the same, that is, that Government was not going to pay the gratuities due to many of these workers. They are all front-line workers but many of them are low paid, and these are significant payments.

Having been stonewalled by the former Minister, Deputy Reilly, when the Minister took over the position I got a decent answer in February of this year stating that he had initiated a review of the matter following advice from the Department's legal adviser, which would involve the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the HSE and the Minister's own Department, and they were due to report back by the end of March this year. We are in June now. I have continued to write to the HSE and the Minister's own good offices seeking an update. Those people deserve this money. It is an entitlement in lieu of pensions and we have to let them know one way or the other whether Government will pay what is due to them. If that is not the case, it should let them know, but I will be one of those supporting them going to the courts to enforce the Labour Court recommendation.

I hope we can see a resolution. I know the Minister will agree and I know that he knows the importance of home help workers across the country from his constituency and the work he does as Minister for Health. This is a Labour Court recommendation that goes back to 2009. They have been left swinging in the wind since then. They deserve to be paid and they deserve this money. I am seeking an update from the Minister today that, hopefully, has some cast-iron timelines. The Department and the Minister said that they would report back by March. I have had no advice about the conclusion of those discussions between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the HSE could perhaps the Minister could update me on the situation. I again thank him for taking this matter today.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

I thank the Senator for raising this issue again and for his ongoing interest in the matter. It is a timely opportunity to update the House. The matter was considered by the parties at the recent public sector talks facilitated by the Labour Relations Commission at Lansdowne House. While there will always be a need for long-term residential care, older people consistently tell us that they want to be facilitated and supported to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as is possible.

The HSE will spend approximately €330 million this year on home help and home care packages. These services are provided directly by the HSE, private organisations or voluntary organisations funded by the HSE. Home help services are provided mainly by the HSE's directly employed staff. In the greater Dublin area, Wicklow and Clare, home help services are provided by voluntary providers on behalf of the HSE. These voluntary providers are funded under section 39 of the Health Act. The HSE has in place service-level agreements with these providers that set out the level of home help service to be provided for the grant to the individual organisation and requirements relating to standards of care.

As the home helps employed by these section 39 organisations are not HSE employees, the HSE does not determine the salaries or other terms and conditions to apply to these staff, including pension arrangements. Accordingly, such arrangements offered by individual providers will vary. The pay and superannuation terms and conditions of the staff concerned are not subject to the control of the Department of Health and they are not classified as public servants. The granting of any pension entitlement in such circumstances to private or voluntary sector employees would have wide-ranging implications for the taxpayer that go well beyond home helps.

Access for home helps in voluntary organisations to a pension scheme similar to that provided for home helps in the employment of the HSE has been the subject of a number of Labour Court recommendations involving SIPTU, IMPACT and the HSE. Implementation of the Labour Court recommendation on payment of a gratuity to the home helps employed by the section 39 organisations has been hindered in recent years by the budgetary situation and is further complicated by the fact that the HSE is not the employer.

I am pleased to confirm that the issue was discussed during the recent Lansdowne Road talks and that the parties reached agreement on a process for giving formal consideration to the matter. The parties agreed to establish with immediate effect a working group to examine a number of issues, including gratuity payments for home helps. The group, while operating under the aegis of the National Joint Council, is to arrange its first meeting within four weeks and is scheduled to conclude its business by 30 September 2015.

Senator Darragh O'Brien

I thank the Minister for the update. I note that 30 September 2015 is the end date for reporting. I am glad it is included in the process. However, I am again disappointed that it is effectively a further delay. We were told that we would have a report by the end of March. Obviously, nothing has happened with that. I am at a loss. I will write separately again to see whether anything came from the discussions from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the HSE. If that was the establishment of another group to agree the process, I think we have enough information to know that the State has a liability here and should uphold the Labour Court recommendation and pay these moneys. If it is the case that this can be done before 30 September 2015, in the context of waiting for so long, that would be broadly welcome. I will be keeping a close eye on this situation. I thank the Minister for his response. I will assess it and come back to him about it.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

It is like many outstanding industrial relations issues in health and other sectors that were parked and truncated into the talks on the Lansdowne House agreement. Some were resolved and some were not resolved. For those that were not resolved, a process was agreed to resolve them in the next couple of months. I am confident that we will have a resolution or at least a decision on resolution by the end of September this year.

Organ Donation

Senator Colm Burke

I welcome the Minister to the House. This is a short Commencement matter relating to living donors of kidney transplants. The issue of giving assistance to donors was raised at the health committee some months ago. If a person is a living donor he or she will obviously be out of work for a period. My understanding is that it can be anything up to three months. The entire cost of dialysis at the moment is approximately €75,000 per annum per patient in real terms. There are approximately 1,800 people on dialysis. Living donors bring great benefits to the recipient of the kidney, obviously, but also to the State. What those concerned are looking for is small. If people incur a loss of earnings there should be some facility for them. They should be able to receive some remuneration so that they are not out-of-pocket for coming forward on a voluntary basis and giving assistance to a third party. I am raising the issue in this context. I have not heard anything back on the matter although it was raised at the health committee and I have not received any related proposals. I may be out of touch on the matter but I am unaware of any new proposals.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

I thank Senator Burke for raising this issue. I am pleased to inform the House that I introduced a scheme to reimburse the expenses of living donors on 12 November last year. The scheme provides for the reimbursement of loss of earnings incurred by living kidney donors and provides for the reimbursement of accommodation and travel expenses incurred as a direct result of kidney donation.

A key principle of organ donation is that it should be voluntary and unpaid. However, it is recognised that most living donors incur financial losses while donating a kidney. The scheme that I have introduced is based on the premise that any reimbursement granted does not provide a financial incentive or reward to the potential donor. The reimbursement scheme applies to a person who has been selected as a potential donor by the living donor programme at Beaumont Hospital and to those who, under clinical supervision of the national renal transplant programme at Beaumont, travel to the United Kingdom for a paired kidney donation.

The loss of earnings incurred from the time the donation takes place and up to 12 weeks post-donation are eligible for reimbursement. A maximum of €6,000 applies in respect of loss of earnings and payments can apply to either salaried or self-employed donors. In addition to loss of earnings, reasonable travel and accommodation expenses incurred from when the person is selected as a potential donor through to the inpatient stay when the donation takes place and for up to 12 weeks post-donation are eligible for reimbursement. Again, there is an upper limit of €6,000.

I am pleased to inform the House that provision was included in the Finance Act 2014 to ensure that these reimbursements are exempt from income tax. The Department of Social Protection has agreed that in circumstances where a donor is in receipt of a payment from that Department, such payments will continue for a period of up to 12 weeks from donation. This is, of course, provided that such payments are in line with the normal rules and regulations of the Department of Social Protection.

The reimbursement scheme is administered by the HSE. Up to the end of May it had received 13 applications for reimbursement from living donors and has paid out €15,000 so far. In conjunction with the HSE, my Department proposes to review the operation of the scheme before the end of the year to see how it is working and to consider how it might work better.

Finally I wish to put on record my thanks and those of the Government as well as our appreciation to living kidney donors, who donated kidneys in record numbers last year. The gift of life they have given to others is an example to all of us.

Senator Colm Burke

I thank the Minister for a comprehensive reply. The only other question I have in respect of the kidney donation issue relates to the current position on the number of consultants we require. I realise it was not part of my question. Anyway, we have over 1,800 people on dialysis. Let us compare this to Norway, which has a population of 4.8 million. It has only approximately 370 or 380 people on dialysis. We have a good deal of catching up to do on the matter. I wonder if any proposals are in place to try to increase the number of consultants who can provide the operations that are required.

Deputy Leo Varadkar

To be honest, I am not familiar with the Norwegian figures. However, I know from the Irish Kidney Association that we are one of the few countries in the world which has more people who have had kidney transplants than the number of those who are on dialysis.

In respect of kidney donations, we are in the top tier of countries in the western world. Transplants are carried out in three hospitals, namely, the Mater, St. Vincent's and Beaumont. Recruitment is under way in all sites. While the Mater and St. Vincent's have been relatively successful in their recruitment campaigns, recruitment has been a challenge for Beaumont.

Marine Rescue Station

Senator Mark Daly

I thank the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport for coming to the House to take this Commencement matter. As I am sure he is aware, the Valentia marine rescue co-ordination centre is the busiest of our three centres. He may also have received a report on why it should be closed given that every Minister coming to his Department receives a report written by some official in the permanent Government advocating its closure. The issue I raise today concerns the appointment of a resident engineer to the centre. I understand the position was advertised and located in Cork. Malin and Dublin have resident engineers but even though Valentia is busier than those centres its engineer will be located 200 km away from it. The engineer will be responsible for maintaining VHF communications with a considerable number of sites along the Cork and Kerry coastline. The Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport discussed at length an incident that occurred during the last attempt by the Coast Guard Service to close Valentia and move its operations to Dublin. Galley Head communications network was down for six months.

Within five days of it being repaired, it was the only receiver station to manage to pick up a distress signal from a ship that went down near Galley Head. The reason we were given for it not having been fixed was that the engineer had been out sick for six months. Yet a piece of infrastructure as vital as that was not repaired. It is hard to understand why the engineer who will be servicing our busiest marine rescue co-ordination centre will be based 200 km away while Malin and Dublin will have theirs on site in residence. Perhaps the Minister might enlighten us as to why Valentia is being discriminated against while Dublin and Malin will have their engineers on site.

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (Deputy Paschal Donohoe)

I apologise to the Senator for keeping him waiting and I thank him for raising the matter. The engineering branch of the Irish Coast Guard provides a national maritime safety telecommunications and responder alerting and notification service. This involves the provision of a wide range of diverse but specialised systems. All design, procurement, project management, and subsequent administration and maintenance are carried out in-house by the small number of staff servicing this area.

Due to the large quantity of systems, services and equipment, and the need to replace aged equipment to ensure service availability, the engineering section is undertaking continual programmes of equipment modernisation. The workload has grown considerably in recent years due in no small part to the continual evolution of services that the automatic identification system, AIS, provides and the proliferation of external users, including the Naval Service, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the North Sea regional server and the Maritime Safety and Security Information System, all of which use the system for the interconnection and exchange of data.

The role of an engineering officer covers a broad range of duties in terms of the management and operation of all technical aspects of the marine communications network. The engineering officer is required to diagnose and maintain a broad range of radio and telecommunications equipment used in maritime communications, responder alert and notification, vessel tracking technologies, and supporting infrastructure, including maintenance of all equipment employed in the national maritime communication networks; fault analysis across multiple wide-area telecommunication networks; identification and analysis of fault trends nationally and by equipment type; maintenance of radio site infrastructure, including antennae, masts, buildings, perimeter and access; maintenance of communications equipment at Coast Guard unit station houses, including equipment in boats and vehicles; co-ordination and management of multiple subcontractor and utility providers; and co-ordination and management of local spares and stock holding.

Additionally - this is an important factor in the requirement to fill the vacancy which arose in the Cork office - the engineering officer is responsible for the maintenance of communications equipment at Coast Guard unit station houses, including equipment in boats and vehicles and the co-ordination and management of multiple subcontractor and utility providers. The engineering officer reports to an electronics officer based in Dublin, who is responsible for the overall management and operation of all technical aspects of the national marine communications network.

Following recent amalgamations, there are currently approximately ten Coast Guard units throughout Cork and five in Kerry. A significant amount of travel throughout the region and out-of-hours availability is a necessary feature of the role. The Cork office continues to provide a good location for the overall fulfilment of the various engineering responsibilities and it is for this reason that the post is located in Cork.

The post became available on foot of the retirement of the previous incumbent. It has taken some time to fill the vacancy due to the need to comply with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform policy in filling public sector vacancies and also due to the requirements of the Public Appointment Service, PAS, recruitment process.

The advertisement which issued from the PAS clearly indicated that the position to be filled was in the Cork office. I am happy to say that the recruitment process is now complete. The position has been offered to the successful candidate who is due to commence very shortly in the Cork office where the other Coast Guard staff are located.

Senator Mark Daly

I thank the Minister for his reply. It goes back to the earlier point I made that the engineer is based in Dublin, servicing the marine rescue co-ordination centre there and Malin yet the busiest station is in Valentia and the engineer will be based in Cork, 200 km away. While there are ten Coast Guard units in Cork and five in Kerry the requirement for maintenance of equipment is minimal compared to the important equipment at Valentia. If that equipment or the utilities coming into it suffer a catastrophic failure as stated in one report, prior to the new equipment being installed, nothing else works. If something goes down in Ballycotton, only Ballycotton is out of action; if something goes down in Valentia, everything from Cork to the Aran Islands goes out of action, hence the reason we believe an engineer should be living on the island and working there during the day but also available at short notice. That was the issue raised in Kerry about the position being filled. As the Minister is in the House I avail of the opportunity to congratulate him on his post but also to advise him that the two previous incumbents received reports on the reason Valentia should be closed. There is an agenda within the Department and the Coast Guard to close Valentia. Unfortunately, the Oireachtas joint committee had to invite in the senior civil servants from the Department and take apart their reports line by line. When the facts were uncovered it was clear that the reports presented to this and the previous Government were at variance with the truth. When I was younger I watched "Yes Minister" but never thought I would see it in action but I did. If the Minister does have a report perhaps he would ask for the two previous reports and inquire what happened to them when there was an attempt to close the Coast Guard station at Valentia.

Deputy Paschal Donohoe

I thank the Senator for his comments. I have only briefly seen "Yes Minister". I assure the Senator that the environment in which I work does not resemble it in any way. I accept the Senator's genuine interest in the matter raised. I had the opportunity to visit Valentia and meet the management of the overall Coast Guard service. While there, one of the issues emphasised to me was that the advances that have taken place, following Government investment, mean that if any critical system for any catastrophic reason were not to work the same system and capacity can be deployed via the other two key stations in Malin and Dublin. If for any reason a systems failure were to occur, owing to the investment that has been put in place we have the capacity for the other two key stations to play a role in sustaining safety.

In respect of any reports I have received, I have no such report in front of me. I am aware of the debate that took place in the past in respect of Valentia. I was happy to visit the Coast Guard and see the unit which has been invested in and to attend an event to commemorate the 100 years of service that took place there. I look forward to many more years of service being provided there.

I understand where Senator Daly is coming from in respect of the specific point he put to me regarding the location of the engineer. The people who work in this area in my Department - whose only agenda, I assure the Senator, is to work with me to get the best value out of the money that is available to us while at the same time meeting the safety needs on our coasts and in our waters - have been clear that it is important that this person is based in Cork to service the other ten units within the county and region of Cork and to deliver the other needs that I have identified such as maintenance, fault analysis, maintenance of radio site infrastructure and other matters I detailed in my earlier contribution. The location was chosen for those reasons and it is a decision I support, given the expertise that went into making it. However, I will keep the Senator's broader points in mind in the context of any future decisions or debate on the unit.

Sitting suspended at 3.16 p.m. and resumed at 3.30 p.m.