asked the Minister for Health if previously appointed architects, consulting engineers and quantity surveyors to the Cork Regional Hospital were dismissed; and, if so, if he will give deails of (a) the date of dismissal, (b) the manner in which it was effected, (c) the date or dates upon which the persons or firms concerned were informed of the dismissal and (d) the authority under which the dismissals were effected.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cork Regional Hospital.
42.
Mr. Barrett
As I have already informed the Deputy a couple of weeks ago in replying to supplementary questions, the work already carried out by the consultants employed by the Cork Health Authority for an earlier scheme for a regional hospital has been paid for by that authority.
The project for the planning and erection of a general hospital is now being dealt with by the Cork Hospitals Board. The Board recently submitted a recommendation that the decision to proceed by way of an international competition for the selection of an architect should be abandoned. The final decision taken in that regard and the procedure to be adopted for the future planning of the hospital will have an important bearing on the appointment of consultants for the work.
I should like to add, as Deputy Barrett is here, that last week I declined to give the information requested as I considered the way in which the question was framed was unfair and left me in the same dilemma as the lawyer who put it to his client: "Are you beating your wife?"
Have you given up beating your wife?
Mr. Barrett
I should like to assure the Minister that at no time did I think he was making the allegation that I was beating my wife. I quite understood the way in which he used the term, but when it appeared in the Press, it was a source of embarrassment to me. When the Minister used the term "Have you stopped beating your wife?" he wanted to convey that I had asked the same sort of question. The question: "Have you stopped beating your wife?" is very difficult to answer. If you say "No", it means you are still beating her; and if you say "yes", it means you have been beating her. I am hoping that the Press which published the Minister's statement will also publish the explanation.
I should like to say that I do not make personal attacks on anybody, and I think Deputy Barrett would be about the last person on whom one would do so.