When the debate adjourned last night I had referred to the fact that £8.7 million has already been spent on the development of the Tallaght Hospital, going into site preparation, the preparation of detailed drawings, plans and so on. I wish to remind the House that in December 1988 this House debated Tallaght at length in the course of a Private Members' motion moved by the Labour Party, when the House was asked to declare its concern about the microcosm of disadvantage that Tallaght represented and to establish a special programme to address and resolve a range of highlighted problems. I should now like to quote just a few of the contributions of Members of the present Government to that debate.
Minister Flynn, who was Minister for the Environment at the time, in the course of his contribution to that debate, stated at column 471, volume 385, of the Official Report of 6 December 1988:
This Government are committed to the Tallaght Hospital project and approval has recently issued to the board to proceed to Stage 4 of the planning process. It is anticipated that if the present rate of progress is maintined construction work will commence in mid-1990.
We all know what happened. In fact, if the present rate of progress is maintained Tallaght will never get a hospital. Now that Minister Flynn is a senior member of the present Government, I can only express the hope that he will add his voice to the legitimate demands of the people of Tallaght in order to make good on that promise which he made in this House four years ago.
Minister Harney also spoke in that debate. She was, of course, in Opposition then and might not wish to be reminded of some of the things she said. Nevertheless, they are worthy of repetition. At column 774 of the Official Report of 7 December 1988, she said:
As somebody who has sat on both sides of this House in my six years since becoming a Member of Dáil Éireann it seems to me that when people move from the Government side to the Opposition side suddenly they can find the penance for all Tallaght's ills and nothing is impossible. Tallaght, for its size, has never been given any recognition by any Government in this country.
At column 777 the Minister made the further comment — column 777 — and how prophetic it was:
Not until such time as there is at the Cabinet table — and I do not mind who is in power — somebody who represents the area will Tallaght get the kind of resources it deserves.
Speaking specifically about the provision of a hospital, Minister Harney told the Dáil that night that she could think of no more worthy project for Structural Funds than the building of a hospital and other much-needed facilities in Tallaght. She added that if Structural Fund moneys were not available, then the Government should borrow the money — she even specified the bank from which it should be borrowed — and repay it over a period of years.
At column 779 of the Official Report of 7 December 1988, she concluded:
The country is not so badly off that it cannot afford that level of finance. We must have a determination and a commitment to help deprived and disadvantaged areas like Tallaght.
No one could disagree with that sentiment. But the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy Harney, has now been in Government for three years, close to the Cabinet table while all that has happened to the hole in the ground that should be the Tallaght Hospital is that the weeds grow higher there by the year. It is no good coming into the House replying to questions saying: I support this project; I am committed to this project; it will be done; it cannot be done now, that kind of response is of no interest or value to the people of Tallaght.
Such promises have been given over the years. I suppose two or three times a year questions have been tabled by myself and other Deputies to the Minister for Health asking: what about it? The reply keeps on being given that the Government are committed to the Tallaght Hospital. But where is it? Where is the beef? Why do the Government not do what the Minister of State, Deputy Harney, told them to do away back in 1988, go out and borrow the money for this worthwhile project? That is much to be advocated when one considers some of the far less deserving or worthwhile projects on which money is spent and has been borrowed over the years. What more worthwhile project than this could there be? The Minister of State, Deputy Harney, gave them the correct advice back in 1988. Why now does she, along with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Flood, not insist that the money is provided, in some measure, to get the Tallaght Hospital project under way?
The complaint is made that the project will cost £118 million; that was not always so. At the end of 1987 I tabled a parliamentary question to the then Minister for Health and the reply was to the effect that the development of the hospital was to take place on a phased basis, that initial site works were in course of completion, that detailed planning would be completed by the end of 1988 — the first phase of the development having about 450 beds and expected to be completed in 1992-1993. It was said that the estimated cost of that phase was £43 million of thich approximately £3 million had been spent up to that date. Therefore, the then estimate for the hospital of 450 beds was £40 million. Now, because of the delay, it is £118 million. If we do not get on with it now and quickly the £118 million will escalate as time goes on, when the problem will appear even greater. That is why it is of the utmost importance there be no further delay on this project.
Tallaght is entitled to this hospital by reason of its size alone. Comparisons have been drawn with Limerick and other areas. It is the one remaining huge conurbation in this country that does not have the basic, essential facility of a hospital, which is needed nowhere more than in Tallaght. There are so many people living there, women in particular, who suffer grievously as a result of the appalling expense and, in many cases, risk to life involved in having to take one or two buses or other transport into the city to seek hospital treatment in out-patients departments, already overcrowded or to have operations performed for which the waiting lists are already too long.
In 35 years Tallaght has grown from being a village in the foothills of Dublin, with a population then of approximately 400, to a major conurbation, bigger than any other city in this State with the exception of Dublin and Cork. If the people of Cork or Limerick were treated in the manner the people of Tallaght are treated, no Government could survive the outrage. A Cheann Comhairle, you and other Members of this House will recall the uproar and mayhem created here when it was suggested that one of three hospitals in Limerick might be closed, although Limerick has a lesser population than Tallaght, all hell broke loose; yet we cannot get the building and construction of this project under way, promised for so long.
For all too long the people of Tallaght have been patronised, on the one hand and, on the other ignored. This has to stop and stop now. Now is the time we require and must insist on the implementation of the commitment given to the people of Tallaght.
