I want to thank you yet again, Cheann Comhairle, for permitting me to raise this important matter on the Adjournment. With the permission of the House, I would like to give at least one minute of my time to my constituency colleague, Deputy Harney.
Adjournment Debate. - Tallaght (Dublin) New Hospital.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
When the Taoiseach, Deputy Reynolds, came to Tallaght on 6 November 1992 and announced the starting date of 14 April 1993 for the long-awaited regional hospital, most people, including the other political parties, were prepared to accept his word. He said: "Work will commence on the Tallaght regional hospital on 14 April 1993". That was announced at the Tallaght Person of the Year Award ceremony on 6 November last. Approximately two months later, that commitment was one of the very few specific undertakings in the Programme for Government. It said: "Funding is being provided to enable the construction to start in the spring of 1993". The ink was hardly dry on page 28 of the Programme for Government when word leaked that work on the regional hospital would not commence in April.
This betrayal of the Taoiseach's solemn undertaking and of the promise in the Programme for Government has been met with a mixture of despair, dejection and cynicism by the people of Tallaght, Clondalkin and the surrounding region. If the Taoiseach's pledge, underwritten in the Programme for Government, becomes only the latest in a long litany of broken promises on this issue, who can the people believe? What standing will politicians have if a project so major and vital to almost 250,000 people whom the hospital is designed to serve can be advanced and withdrawn in such a cavalier fashion? Government spokespersons were anxious to point out that the 6 November announcement was planned months in advance and that it was not merely another election promise.
The new Minister for Health, Deputy Howlin, has now revealed — I am very sorry he cannot be present in the House tonight — that on entering the Department, he discovered that not even the required tendering notices had been placed in accordance with EC regulations. In what kind of light does this place the Taoiseach's undertaking? Was the Taoiseach's statement in Tallaght no more than an election ploy in a vain attempt to win a second seat for Fianna Fáil? According to the new Minister for Health, no further action was taken after the Taoiseach, the then Minister for Health and his Minister of State returned from Tallaght.
In what manner does this disgraceful episode reflect on the negotiating talents of the new Minister for Health and the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Taylor, who represents the constituency? They were two of the authors of the Programme for Government, and presumably inserted the specific commitment on page 28. Did it ever occur to either of them to query their opposite numbers as to whether the most basic procedures had been complied with? Was the Taoiseach's statement made to cover a different blunder?
It is regrettable that neither the Taoiseach nor the former Minister, Deputy John O'Connell, is present to answer these questions tonight because I find it very difficult to believe that when the Taoiseach made the announcement on 6 November the Department did not swing into action to put the normal procedures in place. If the order was countermanded I would like to know who did so because all we have had so far is what I would regard as an unprecedented public assault on the airwaves by the Minister for Equality and Law Reform on his own Government backbencher, Deputy Flood, who is the former Minister of State at the Department of Health.
The Tallaght hospital is not the only issue at risk tonight; the credibility of the Government is also at risk on this issue and only the announcement of a clear and definite date on which work will start on the project will dispel the gloom and dejection felt by people who have waited almost 20 years for their own hospital.
I thank my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, for allowing me to raise this matter this evening. I was present on the infamous occasion in Tallaght when the Taoiseach gave the commitment on Friday, 6 November and I remember his words very well. He said that he was not a man who gave approximate dates — Easter was not good enough for him — that he was a man of action and would give the precise date which was Wednesday, 14 April, the Wednesday after Easter.
When the Taoiseach made that commitment, he should have been aware of the procedures necessary to make it a reality. It would have been necessary for the Taoiseach to put the procedures in place almost instantly given that they are long and detailed and the scale of the contract and the tendering arrangements that need to be entered into at European level. I believe that the Taoiseach did not intend to do anything and if an election had not been on the horizon, no such specific commitment would have been made. I very much regret that. After the election, when the Taoiseach's party had not taken a second seat in the constituency, perhaps the intention was to punish the people by not proceeding with the hospital.
Last Sunday, like Deputy Rabbitte, I listened to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, who will have to take his share of the blame because he was part of the negotiating team with the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance who would have been aware of the exact position in relation to the Tallaght hospital. I am also aware, having been involved in an indirect way in negotiations of this kind, that before such a commitment is put on paper in a programme for Government, official views are sought from various Departments. I am sure that the Department of Health would have been asked for its view. I wonder what its response was, whether it made the negotiators aware that this was an unrealistic commitment and that it was just not on to stick to a date in the spring of this year.
I say to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform that, contrary to the confidentiality rule, he was able to tell us on Sunday that nothing happened between the date of the Taoiseach's announcement in Tallaght and the date he entered Government and that, if it had not been for him and the Minister for Health nothing would have happened. I take a poor view of that statement. Although he is not present this evening the Minister cannot begin his term in Government by simply walking away from his responsibility.
I tabled a question to the Taoiseach in relation to his comments in Tallaght but he transfered it to the Minister for Health. Neither the Minister for Health nor the Minister for Equality and Law Reform was present in Tallaght and the Taoiseach should come into the House to answer questions in relation — as the Minister for Health has said — to the unrealistic promises he made to the people of Tallaght. Will the Minister of State at the Departments of Health and Justice outline the precise timescale? If dates are given, they should be realistic and dates that can be met because the people are tired of false and broken promises.
In response to Deputy Rabbitte the Minister is unavoidably absent but he has sent a good representative to speak on his behalf.
I did not mean to be disrespectful to the Minister.
I appreciate that. As the Deputy will be aware the Tallaght hospital is the last part of the planned development of six major general hospitals in the Dublin area. I would like to reiterate the Government's commitment to the Tallaght Hospital project.
The hospital will have 467 beds with full state of the art support facilities and will, as the Deputy is aware, incorporate the Meath Hospital, the Adelaide Hospital and the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt Street. The Government is also committed to preserving the ethos and traditions of the Adelaide Hospital and the other two hospitals involved in the amalgamation. Their ethos and traditions will be fully protected in the board structure and management of the new hospital.
This reassurance has been given by previous Ministers for Health on many occasions and I am happy to repeat it again tonight.
I can again confirm that the construction of the Tallaght hospital is a top Government priority and will commence as soon as possible this year. The project is proceeding at all possible speed.
In this context the Minister for Health has already referred publicly to the sequence of events which has now been set in train by the Government decision to proceed with the project.
Does the Minister know what that means?
The Minister took up office on 12 January and during his first week he instructed his Department to start the tendering process with all possible speed. The Department wrote to the Tallaght Hospital board on 22 January instructing the board to commence the tendering process. Under EC regulations projects of this magnitude have to follow certain defined EC procedures.
The prior notice advertisement which initiated this process appeared in the EC Journal on 2 Febraury which was the earliest possible date on which it could appear. I am also pleased to inform the Deputy that three restricted procedures notices, for the main hospital construction, mechanical sub-contracts and electrical sub-contracts respectively, appeared in the EC Journal of 5 February which was also the earliest possible date on which they could appear. In line with the procedures, advertisements also appeared on 10 February in the main Irish national newspapers drawing attention to the notice in the EC Journal.
Deputies will be glad to hear that the Minister has arranged to meet on Friday next, 19 February, the Tallaght Hospital board and the three hospitals involved, the Adelaide, the Meath and the National Children's Hospital to ensure that the necessary planning and tender documentation changes can be finalised as quickly as possible. He will also be meeting the Tallaght community groups to keep them informed of progress on the project.
Finally, I wish to confirm again to the House, to the nation at large and particularly to the people of Tallaght that the Minister has put in place a schedule to ensure that building commences at the earliest possible date in 1993 and to reiterate that the necessary capital funds for the project have been provided by the Government in the Health capital programme for 1993.
How much?
That remains to be seen.