I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to raise on the Adjournment this important matter concerning the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght and the Government's decision over the summer period to recommend that the new national paediatric facility should be placed in the Mater Hospital in north Dublin.
This is in no way intended as a slight on the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, but I very much regret that one of the four Ministers in the Department of Health and Children has not come to the House to take this matter. That is not only a slight on the people I represent in Dublin South-West but on this House.
I wrote to Professor Drumm on 14 September and asked him, under the public sector information regulations 2005, to forward to my office as soon as possible the overall score of each of the bids on the national paediatric hospital proposal in terms of the nine McKinsey criteria, the relative weighting of the nine criteria by the joint task force and the ranking place of each of the bids on each of the nine criteria. He responded to me on 26 September stating that he noted the contents of my letter and that he would ask the parliamentary affairs division to investigate the matter and reply to me in due course. I have heard nothing since.
I ask the Government and the Health Service Executive to publish, without further delay, the entire scoring regime that applied to all the hospital bids in Dublin city and county when it came to making the decision on the location of the new national paediatric hospital. I want that information published and out in the public domain now because the people I represent are gobsmacked that a decision was taken that flies in the face of medical, geographical and other logic. It is a decision we could regret in the years ahead and one that needs to be explained in a comprehensive way by the Government which meekly took on board the recommendations from the task force.
At an unveiling ceremony on 1 September the chairman of the Mater Hospital, Dublin, thanked the Taoiseach for following through on his promise to bring the new children's hospital to the Mater. The Taoiseach needs to say exactly what promises he gave to the Mater. Why was it the case when an evaluation allegedly was taking place that promises were given in the Taoiseach's constituency that this national facility would, surprise surprise, end up in his constituency. He needs to comment publicly on that, which he has not done to date following the remarks of Mr. Lamont, chairman of the Mater Hospital.
What people want, not only in terms of Tallaght but St. James's and Crumlin, where this decision has a huge impact, is accountability and transparency. They want to know why, in terms of the criteria, accessibility, co-location, an existing hospital site, the ability to extend in the future, and a good public transport infrastructure, the Mater bid seemed to succeed when on so many of those grounds it could not possibly reach the criteria that Crumlin and, especially, the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght have met consistently.
The Government must say what is its preferred solution. Most people in west, north and south Dublin would accept a position where one hospital with two campuses would be established and the existing services would be located in the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght and radically extended. We are not dealing only with west Dublin but west Wicklow, Kildare and the Meath hinterland. There is a compelling case to be made for one hospital with two locations. We need to know whether that is the way the Government will address this issue. What is its policy in this regard?
I welcome the considerable efforts locally on behalf of the people in the community to stand up for a facility that has done enormous work in providing excellent paediatric medicine for the west and south-west Dublin, Kildare and west Wicklow areas. Some of these efforts will be seen at protests this Saturday in Tallaght. People power has spoken and it will speak again on Saturday. The Government needs to respond and to state unequivocally its plans for the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght and also for Crumlin because it is not just a question of people who work in this area — nurses, doctors and others — it is a bigger question for people who depend on a quality service there for themselves and, more particularly, for their children. That is what they expect but have not got following the decision taken. That is the reason we need more public accountability on what has occurred in this area over the past six months.