asked the Minister for Health if he is now satisfied with the health centre facilities being provided for the people of Darndale, County Dublin.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Dublin Health Centre.
13.
A new health centre at Cromcastle Road, Coolock, is at present under construction and is expected to be completed this year. This new centre will provide a comprehensive range of services for the people of the area, including the Darndale estate. The Eastern Health Board are also seeking to obtain a site from Dublin Corporation between Darndale and the Priorswood housing estate which will enable them, once the Coolock centre is completed, to provide a smaller centre catering for both estates.
Question No. 12 has not been replied to. It was impossible to hear a reply to it.
The Minister replied to it but Deputies were so disorderly they could not hear it.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The practice has been that if a Deputy has not heard the reply and has asked that it be repeated——
The Chair will not be made into a scapegoat in this matter. I will be firm on this. I will make it clear once and for all that if a Deputy insists on being unruly and on disobeying the Chair and does not listen to a reply and says he must have it answered again and again—this question has been answered and I will not allow it to be answered again——
(Cavan-Monaghan): He is turning Question Time into a farce.
The Chair is?
(Cavan-Monaghan): Yes.
Will the Deputy withdraw that?
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Chair may not be aware of this.
Is the Deputy saying the Chair should permit disorder?
(Cavan-Monaghan): No, I am not.
The Chair will not allow Question Time to be turned into a farce. Question Time is Question Time, not an occasion for a debate, and the sooner we get that accepted the better it will proceed——
(Interruptions.)
The more tolerant the Chair becomes the more the privilege is abused. That has become obvious.
Deputy Fitzpatrick was raising a point of order with you, Sir, and consequently it became impossible for me to hear the reply to Question No. 12. On Question No. 13, is the Minister aware that in view of the unsatisfactory situation in the Darndale estate the Eastern Health Board have had to resort to writing to the local authority to ask them to rent a house temporarily in the area?
I am aware of the difficulty in the Darndale estate and that for a considerable time both the Eastern Health Board and my Department have been trying to overcome the difficulty.
Does the Minister recall that on 6 April last he insisted that the centre at Coolock would serve this area adequately? Is he now in agreement that there is an urgent need to provide other accommodation?
I have given the answer.