The shelving of the Tallaght regional hospital is the single most devastating decision for the Tallaght region made by this Government, and I thank the Ceann Comhairle and his office for giving me the opportunity to raise this desperately urgent issue. No other decision has caused so much distress, disappointment and dismay to the thousands of parents of young families in the region which includes not only Tallaght itself but Clondalkin, Rathcoole and Firhouse and runs from Brittas to Ballyboden, Whitechurch to Walkinstown to west Wicklow and from Saggart to south Kildare.
Imagine leaving more than 200,000 people without a hospital. Imagine the additional hardship imposed on parents who depend on irregular and expensive public transport to take sick children to hospital. Imagine the disillusionment of the hundreds of unemployed building workers who were promised jobs by Fianna Fáil, starting in 1990, on the building of this hospital. Imagine the disappointment of the hundreds of ancillary and health care staff who anticipated employment at Tallaght following the transfer of the three hospitals to Tallaght.
What did Fianna Fáil promise in 1989? I have here a copy of the actual advertisement inserted in the media by Fianna Fáil during the general election campaign of 1989 in which they stated that:
Building of the massive new Tallaght hospital in Dublin which was to have started in 1991 has been brought forward to next year.
Chairman of the Tallaght hospital board, Professor R. T. W. L. Conroy said that Health Minister, Dr. Rory O'Hanlon has agreed to accelerate the development programme. It is now hoped that work would be underway in about 15 months time.
The advertisement continued as follows:
By voting Fianna Fáil on the 15th June you will ensure that the improvements which are taking place will continue.
Fianna Fáil campaigned on that commitment during the 1989 general election campaign and many people welcomed the news that they were at last, some 30 years later, going to have the Tallaght Regional Hospital. Since 1989 I have consistently pressed the Government at every opportunity on the hospital. Notwithstanding the failure to meet their promises to the people of the area, I was assured in reply to regular parliamentary questions, for example, on 6 March 1990 that "construction will commence in 1991". Again, on 29 November 1990 I was assured that the Minister had received "a list of selected tenderers for approval".
However, on 7 February in reply to a further question from me, the Minister for Health, Dr. O'Hanlon, finally conceded that "the capital allocation available to my Department for 1991 does not allow for the commencement of any major new capital project ... Tallaght hospital will not commence in 1991". More alarmingly, the Minister refused to say when the hospital would be built and there is now growing desperation that Fianna Fáil and this Government are shelving the hospital indefinitely.
Despite the fact that the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Flood, is an elected Deputy for the constituency, the Government seem totally unaware, or perhaps they do not care, about the hardship being endured by so many families in the most populous region of the country. The entire region to which I have referred earlier has a catchment area of about 200,000 people. This hospital was first mooted in 1961 and decided on in 1968. Thirty years later there is no hospital and no thought for thousands of young families who are cheated of such an essential facility. That would not be tolerated in any other region of the country.
I challenge the Minister for Health this evening to set out at a minimum, a new schedule giving precise dates for the construction, commissioning and opening of the Tallaght regional hospital. I sincerely hope, unlike the last occasion when we raised this matter, that the Minister will not engage or indulge in any personal abuse in his reply. This is an urgent and pressing issue for the people whom he and I represent. I have very briefly traced the history in the time allowed. The deferral was not announced, as a great many people in Tallaght and elsewhere think. The deferral was elicited by way of parliamentary question from me; otherwise we would have got past the local elections without the matter being made public. I hope also he will not use the Adelaide issue as a excuse because it is no more than an excuse especially in the context of the unprecedented, welcome and widespread support for the campaign by the Catholic clergy in Tallaght who have banded together and who have decided to highlight and campaign on the issue of the building of the Tallaght hospital. I have never seen that happen before. There are other related issues. Tallaght desperately needs the jobs this hospital would provide. It would help the town to generate its own economy.
The appointment of Deputy Flood to the Department of Health has been welcomed by me. I sincerely hope that his presence at the Department of Health will mean that a new schedule will be agreed and that commitment to a date when construction work can start will be announced immediately — after all the disappointments — how long the commissioning will take and when we can expect the Tallaght hospital to be opened. It is an urgent issue for so many people in an area that is badly affected by unemployment and where there are so many young families who need regular access to hospital care.
