asked the Minister for Health when the building of the new Coombe Hospital at Cork Street, Dublin, will commence.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - New Coombe Hospital.
46.
Planning of the Coombe Hospital project is in its final stages. Provided the current rate of progress is maintained, it should be possible to invite tenders for the erection of the new hospital during the present year.
Is it not correct to say that planning for the new Coombe Hospital was in an advanced stage when the Minister became Minister for Health in 1957?
I do not know how advanced the stage was but even if the plans had been completed there was no money left to build the hospital. In order that I might spread the resources available to me to meet to the fullest extent possible commitments that had been entered into previously, I had to try to get some of these hospitals to economise and to cut down.
If that is so, would the Minister explain why the money which is being transferred to the Hospitals Trustees for hospital building purposes has since been invested, at the Minister's direction, in the purchase of National Loan?
Because while I want to make certain that the resources are available to complete any project which I may sanction, at the same time, I do not want to have the money lying idle. I cannot think of any better way in which it could be utilised than to hand it over to the Minister for Finance to invest in the economic development of this country.
Would the Minister give some estimate of what increase in the cost of the new Coombe hospital has now been brought about by his delay in building it over the past six years?
If the Deputy gives me notice of that, I shall be prepared to answer it. I am not responsible for any delay over the past six years. I am responsible for saying that there is £700,000 available for the construction of this hospital and that they have got to fit their hospital into that sum.