I am glad to have the opportunity to debate this important issue for the city and particularly the people in my constituency of Dublin South-East. The area is about to lose three hospitals — the Adelaide Hospital, Harcourt Street Children's Hospital and the Meath Hospital. They will be replaced by the new Tallaght Hospital in June. Tallaght undoubtedly needs a new hospital, but so does the south inner city.
When the policy decision was made in the 1970s, Dublin was a different place. The planners had a different vision of what a city should be; cities were places where people worked and conducted business and people aspired and were encouraged to live in the suburbs and to commute to work. We witnessed the decline of the inner city population and the consequent spread of the suburbs. However, that vision has changed radically. The planners and politicians want to create a living city. People are now actively encouraged to live in the inner city, yet at the same time they are deprived of essential services.
Since this policy decision was first mooted the population of Dublin 8 has increased one and a half times over to 30,000, roughly the same size as that of Leitrim. Many new families are moving into the area, yet there is no hospital for them or for their children. It is a devastating blow for a vibrant and growing community, and these people are justifiably very angry about successive Governments' failure to plan adequately for the future health needs of this area.
I have no doubt that if the Government proceeds with the decision to close these hospitals it will be a very costly mistake. It is illogical, short sighted, irresponsible and even dangerous to close down hospitals in such a populated area. Have we not learned from the mistakes of the past? Tod Andrews closed down the Harcourt Street rail line and boasted about it. It seemed like progress then but now we regret that decision. Now we wish to build the expensive Luas system at enormous cost. We built Ballymun flats and now we wish to demolish them. This decision falls into the same category and I urge the Minister to think long and hard before closing down these hospitals, particularly the Meath. The Minister's reply will no doubt refer to the conclusions of the Working Group on the South Inner City Primary Care Needs Assessment, which was completed in March 1997. It identified the problems likely to arise following the relocation of the Meath, Adelaide, and National Children's Hospital to Tallaght. It recommended the establishment of a primary care centre and the enhancement of general practice and community services in the south inner city. The working group recommendations included the following: a minor injuries unit, an out of hours on-call centre, public health nursing facilities, anti-coagulation clinics and in-patient beds for respite care. In addition, the Eastern Health Board has identified the following health service requirements for the south inner city including a 50 bed unit for secondary rehabilitation for the elderly in particular. All of these services could be provided on the Meath Hospital campus. The recommendations of the Eastern Health Board and the working group look good on paper and some are welcome, but it states categorically that acute hospital services are to be provided only from St. James, St. Vincent's and the Mater Hospitals.
This is not good enough and is unacceptable to the people who live locally. An acute general hospital with all the necessary facilities and equipped with the latest technology is needed. How will a minor injuries unit be able to deal with a child with meningitis or an elderly person who has just has a stroke or heart attack? I ask the Minister to reassess Government policy and to intervene before it is too late. I refuse to believe that this decision is irrevocable. At a huge public meeting in the Olympic Ballroom it was suggested that if this was in the Minister's constituency, action would be taken to reverse the decision. I agree with that conclusion.
There is cross-party support at local level for the retention of the Meath Hospital. However, the buck stops with the Minister. I appeal to him given his compassion and common sense to rethink this retrograde decision.