The new hospital at Tallaght is the largest project in the history of our health services. It has been built to a standard on a par with the finest acute teaching hospitals in western Europe. A process of continuous consultation with the user groups who will be providing the services at the new hospital has informed the planning and commissioning of the hospital.
At the start of the commissioning phase of the hospital earlier this year a range of adjustments and some additional works were identified by users. This is not unusual in a project of this size. These works were confirmed by senior management as necessary for a variety of reasons, including adjustments necessitated by improved health and safety standards. The funding required for the completion of these essential additional works, which have been agreed as necessary to facilitate the opening of the hospital on 21 June, is being made available and the hospital is agreed on the arrangements to do this.
It has been agreed with the hospital management for some time that the first task in commissioning the new hospital is to transfer existing services, including the psychiatric services from St. Loman's hospital, to Tallaght and to immediately bring on stream at the new hospital those enhanced facilities which are necessary for the functioning of a major acute hospital. These new facilities include on-site laboratory services, more sophisticated theatres, state of the art sterile services, a "best of breed" information system-information technology system and an ultra modern filmless radiology system known as PACS — Picture Archiving Communication System.
The hospital management is confident that on 21 June all these facilities will be available to the degree necessary to open the hospital and to provide the projected required services similar to those currently being provided at the base hospitals and at St. Loman's. Enormous efforts have been and are being made by very committed people including the staff of the transferring hospitals, construction staff and suppliers to ensure this excellent health facility is made available as soon as possible to the people it is designed to serve.
I appreciate the dedication and commitment to the project by all concerned but particularly the dedication of the chairman of the Tallaght hospital board, Professor Richard Conroy, and the members of that board who have given so generously of their time and expertise in a voluntary capacity to bring this complex project to fruition. The work of the Tallaght hospital board is now in its final stages and its functions will be continued by the board of the Adelaide and Meath hospitals, Dublin, incorporating the board of the National Children's Hospital, currently chaired by Mrs. Rosemary French. I equally appreciate the tremendous achievements of this board since its inception less than two years ago. Not only has the task of integrating and preparing the base hospitals for the move been addressed but it has been done in a spirit of partnership and dedication in the interests of patients.
I share the Deputy's concern that the hospital upon opening should fully meet the needs of the patients for whom it was constructed. While I would be amenable to very temporary and short-term alternative use of a small number of facilities, I and my Department will insist that the hospital will be utilised to meet the needs of the patients for whom it was constructed.
