asked the Minister for Justice if he has received any further submissions from the Hospitals Trust with regard to their participation in alternative sweepstakes; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Hospitals Trust.
12.
I have not received any submission from Hospitals Trust (1940) Limited further to that which was submitted to my immediate predecessor on 7 January 1986 and which was the subject matter of Question No. 218 on 18 February 1986 — Official Report Volume 363, column 2929. I conveyed my decision on that proposal to Hospital Trust on 19 March 1986.
Will the Minister say if the chief executive of the Irish Hospitals Trust has been seeking a meeting with him for the past seven weeks to discuss the future of the trust and particularly the future of the 200 workers concerned?
I do not regard as a proper matter for discussion in this House what is in my diary.
That is a most unsatisfactory response. It is well known that the Minister has been dodging the chief executive of the Hospitals Trust. Meanwhile 200 people have been unemployed since last January.
Of all the allegations we have heard this afternoon, that is the most stupid and one with the least foundation.
I resent the attitude of the Minister.
Will the Chair ask the Minister to withdraw that silly remark?
The Minister misled the House in his earlier reply to me. It is well known he has been dodging the chief executive——
I must ask the Deputy to withdraw that remark. I have not misled the House. I told the House I have not received any application other than the one referred to in reply to a previous question. If the Deputy claims I am misleading the House, will he please produce evidence for that? He knows perfectly well he has just chanced his arm on this and he has been caught out.
Members should keep the temperature low.
I never chance my arm in this House or anywhere else. The Minister should know that by now.
I did not mislead the House.
Will the Minister answer with a yes or a no if he received an application from the chief executive more than seven weeks ago to meet him? Has he not been in touch with the Minister on a number of occasion since then seeking such a meeting? Is the answer yes or no?
I have told the House. I will not discuss my diary with the House.
I put it to the Minister that he is just not interested in the 200 workers who have been made redundant and he has no interest in the Hospitals Trust. They have contributed £40 million to the Exchequer since they were founded and a sum of £140 million to hospitals. It is scandalous and disgraceful.
If the Deputy wanted to ask that question he should have asked it. It is not the question on the Order Paper. I will not be taken in or taken for a ride by this mindless procedure in which Deputy Brady is now involving himself, of jumping from one question to another and of saying that if the Minister concerned does not adopt a certain course obviously it must mean something else. The Deputy does not even believe it himself.
The attitude of the Minister to such a serious question speaks for itself.
I have spent more time on that problem than the Deputy.
The Minister is not behaving with a lot of common sense on this occasion.