asked the Minister for Health if he will state when he expects sanction will be given to the proposal of Baggot Street Hospital to start work on the provision of the much-needed extra accommodation for the outdoor dispensary.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Baggot Street Hospital.
I agreed to the provision of an outpatients' department at the Baggot Street Hospital over a year ago. The scheme to which I agreed was to be financed out of the old Sweepstakes funds, which are still held by the hospital authorities. These funds amount to approximately £50,000 and I consider that that amount should be sufficient to provide an adequate outpatients' department.
The hospital authorities have submitted a scheme, which is estimated to cost £60,000, to the Hospitals Commission and the commission have reported to me on this scheme.
The commission consider that it is possible to modify the scheme, without radically altering it, so that the cost can be reduced to £50,000. I have requested the Hospitals Commission to discuss the problem again with the hospital authorities to discover whether it is possible to arrive at an agreed scheme.
If agreement can be reached on a satisfactory scheme the necessary sanction will be issued without delay.
Is the Minister aware that, from the beginning, since this scheme came before his Department for consideration, this hospital has been kicked backwards and forwards between the Hospitals Commission and his Department like a rugby football? Is he further aware that the original scheme was estimated to cost in the neighbourhood of £75,000 and, as a result of a cutting-down process, it was brought to its present figure, which is the lowest sum the scheme can be carried out for if it is to be of any use? Will he agree, if this hospital requires from his Department or from the Hospitals Fund an additional sum of £10,000 to the £50,000 they have in hands, that it will be a very cheap gift from his Department that will accrue to the citizens of Dublin in the establishment of this much-needed outdoor dispensary?
I quite appreciate the case made by the Deputy, but I am sure he will agree that if I am reasonably satisfied that adequate provision of the kind he mentions could be made at a cost of £50,000, I would not be justified in sanctioning a sum of £60,000.
Is the Minister not aware that if sanction had been given when it was first requested, the amount of work that now would be done for £50,000 could then have been done for £30,000 or £35,000, and the longer the construction of this building is delayed there will be further increases in prices and £50,000 may not go so very far?
Curiously enough, this scheme, so far as I am informed, is one of many post-war schemes started in 1946 and the cost at that time was estimated in the region of £120,000. It is now estimated that adequate accommodation of the kind required can be provided for £50,000. From my knowledge of the finance of the Hospitals Sweeps Fund and from my knowledge of the finances of the hospital, if the hospital authorities can be persuaded that neither I, the Hospitals Sweeps Fund nor the hospital can afford an outpatients' department which will cost £60,000, we can then proceed with the very necessary building.
Will the Minister agree to give sanction for the £50,000?