asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state the present position of his Department regarding the delay in erecting district hospitals at Birr and Edenderry, County Offaly.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hospital Accommodation in Offaly.
A county hospital is in course of erection at Tullamore. The provision of district hospitals at Birr and Edenderry is not considered to be an urgent matter, and consideration of these proposals has been deferred for the present.
Is it a fact that the Parliamentary Secretary sanctioned these two proposals over three years ago, and that plans for the erection of the district hospital at Birr are in the Minister's Department for over four months?
That may be true. It may be assumed that a district hospital may ultimately be provided in Edenderry, but the position is that the Hospitals Trust Fund does not permit of the erection of all the institutions we propose ultimately to provide within a period of a year or two. The entire programme will be dealt with eventually, but we are taking on work of greatest urgency to begin with.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary forward a considered reply on these lines to the Offaly Board of Health?
Will the Parliamentary Secretary Consider the question of giving one hospital to Longford seeing that there are to be three in Offaly?
That is a separate question.