Adjournment Debate.

School Accommodation.

Mr. Murphy

I wish to deal with the question of Aghina national school, Macroom, County Cork. Aghina's primary school is a total shambles and rat-infested. That fact was recognised by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, when he was Minister for Education and Science. In a Dáil reply on 5 March 1998, the Minister said it was not acceptable that children should have to accept such conditions. In June 1998, work began on the planning process and a site was identified. It took until December —nearly one and a half years —before planning was even applied for. It was not granted until March 2001. That was entirely the fault of the Department of Education and Science and had nothing to do with a delay in the planning process in Cork County Council. The Office of Public Works purchased the site in July 2001. In the meantime, the Southern Health Board classified the school as substandard and recommended that a new school be built as soon as possible for health and safety reasons, clearly stating on that occasion that remedial works would not be sufficient to attain the necessary health and safety standards. That report was submitted to the Minister for Education and Science. Conditions were so bad in the school that parents withdrew their children in protest in February 2002.

The Department kept coming up with delaying tactics, but the general election was drawing closer and Fianna Fáil was going to promise anything necessary to win two seats in that constituency. The now infamous day, 18 April 2002, was when the Taoiseach visited Macroom to announce that Elan Corporation was to set up a manufacturing operation in the general semi-conductor plant. Shortly afterwards, a new school development was finally put out to tender in Aghina. On 14 October 2002, the Department consultants recommended a contractor who had tendered the price nearly €120,000 cheaper than the Department's own estimates.

January 2003 heralded the new era of transparency on the part of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey. He was to post on the Department's website the exact category that each school was in and when the work was to commence. Aghina national school was listed in section 4. That clearly meant that large school projects would be authorised to proceed to construction in 2003. At that stage, everybody thought it was game, set and match, and that the school would go ahead. The Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, had clearly explained to this House that there would no longer be any need to second-guess his new transparent system.

However, immediately other issues were raised by the Department of Education and Science. It asked whether numbers were sustainable and whether significant cost savings might be found. That came despite the fact that, in December 2003, a Department official in Tullamore clearly stated to Aghina's board of management that the numbers were off the table. With numbers off the table, the only issue was cost savings, and as the tendered price was already €120,000 below the Department's estimate, there was no issue there either. There was no reason the school should not go ahead. Every other school published on that list had commenced at that stage except Aghina.

Then, out of the blue, Aghina national school appeared in section 2 of Deputy Noel Dempsey's transparent list on 17 December 2003, the category that would allow small primary schools to undertake building works. That came despite the fact that, in October 2001, the Southern Health Board had said in an expert report that remedial works would be insufficient to attain the necessary health and safety standards. That makes absolutely no sense, and anyone who read the reports from beginning to end should have known that putting the school on that list was totally inappropriate. We have now gone full circle. The Government, the Fianna Fáil Minister and the local Fianna Fáil Deputies tried to make fools out of the people of Aghina and Macroom, the latter with the promise of an Elan factory and the former with the promise of a new school. Those election promises were never intended to be delivered on.

Macroom was always known as the town that never reared a fool, and this Fianna Fáil Government will learn that that is a fact by the time the people of Aghina and Macroom have finished with it. I strongly advise the Minister to give the go-ahead for the school immediately.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. T. O’Malley)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline the Department of Education and Science's position regarding the proposed new accommodation for Aghina national school, Macroom, County Cork.

The Department received an application from the school's board of management requesting additional accommodation. Following an examination of the case, architectural planning of the project commenced. The Aghina national school building project was listed in section 4 of the 2003 school building programme, which was published on the Department of Education and Science's website at www.education.ie. It was planned that the project be authorised to proceed to construction during 2003, subject to significant cost savings and a review of the enrolment levels later in the year.

The school enrolment had declined significantly over the last few years. Accordingly, the Department's schools inspector visited the school to ascertain the enrolment intake in September 2003. The enrolment at September 2003 had fallen to 25 pupils. Department officials met the chairperson and representatives of the board of management of the school last December to discuss the enrolment position and issues relating to the proposed school building project. Officials subsequently visited the school on 19 December to review the condition of the existing accommodation.

The proposed project is being reviewed in the Department at present to decide the best way forward for the school. It is expected that the review will be completed very shortly. The Department will be in contact with the board of management to move the matter forward as soon as the review has been completed.

Health Board Services.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputies Michael D. Higgins and Neville have five minutes each.

Mr. M. Higgins

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Cheann Comhairle as ucht an seans a thabhairt dom an ábhar práinneach seo a thógaint suas, rud a ghoilleann go mór, ní hamháin ar mhuintir na Gaillimhe agus an iarthair ach go háirithe ar na daoine a bhíodh ag freastal ar othair san ospís sul ar dúnadh í naoi míó shin. Tá sé scanallach go bhfuil an oispéis dúnta gan freagra ar na ceisteanna a cuireadh ag an am. Níl aon fhianaise ann go dtuigeann an Rialtas cé chomh buartha is atá an gnáthphobal i leith an ábhair seo.

When Galway Hospice closed nine months ago on the basis of a decision by the palliative care consultant not to refer patients to the hospice, no clear message was given as to the reason the residential beds were being closed. The visiting service and the home care service continued. However, the residential beds have not been available for nine months. I wish to use this debate to put some questions to the Minister.

Last night's "Prime Time" programme referred to a letter from the palliative care consultant. It is not clear whether it contained suggestions about breaches of process in the administration of medicines or in the actual administration of medicine. That has caused great concern to relatives of patients and to families who had relatives in the hospice. Public support for the Galway Hospice is immense. Nobody questions that. The concept and philosophy of the hospice is widely supported by the public. However, there are questions which must be answered.

Some time ago I proposed that the Minister for Health and Children intervene. Rather than remove the service, the Minister could have removed the basis for the questions and allowed an independent service to operate in the interim. That was rejected. An internal inquiry in the hospice has been completed. It is with the legal advisers of the hospice board. When will this be published? Will it be published in full or is it proposed to publish only part of it? There is a second internal inquiry in the Western Health Board. When will it be completed and will it be published? Will both reports be published together? What is the relationship between the two inquiries?

Initially people were urged to be sensitive because there were issues of great concern with regard to patient care. However, after being patient people were encouraged to be even more patient and await the results of the report. Nine months have passed. There was a suggestion, even as late as last night by the chairperson of the Western Health Board, that the report to the hospice board is a matter for the board, as if it were a neutral and independent body. However, in reply to questions in the House and elsewhere, the Minister correctly acknowledged that the hospice is run in a partnership between the Western Health Board and the hospice board. If that is the case, why has the Western Health Board not requested a copy of the hospice report? Why has the Western Health Board not told the public the circumstances in which it will be published? Why has the health board not sought to put pressure on those who should have resolved the questions which are now arising in the minds of the public?

These matters cannot wait. The Western Health Board allocated €2.3 million to the hospice last year. Does the Minister accept that the board is inextricably involved in the administration of the hospice and does he not think that the health board has a duty to publish the reports? Another important issue is the staff.

It is insufficient for the hospice board to state, although we have yet to hear such a statement, that it has been responding to the internal investigation, it will make such changes as it can in the short term and that the beds might re-open. We would welcome that but questions must be answered. The fundamental question is, why was the service removed? Why was it necessary to remove the service to conduct the investigation? When will the beds be re-opened? When will the reports be published? When will we receive the opinion of the Western Health Board? When will the matters raised in the letter quoted in the "Prime Time" programme last night be addressed in the interest of the patients and the public?

Mr. Neville

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this matter. The Galway Hospice has been closed since last May. It is extraordinary that such a necessary and valuable service is denied to the people in need of it. We congratulate and support hospices throughout the country, including the Milford Care Centre in Limerick, and we note the excellent work done by the hospice movement.

It is unbelievable that no patients have been admitted to the Galway Hospice in the past nine months. Only one patient is being cared for and a full service is available to that patient. One would have to be concerned about the alleged statement of the palliative care specialist, who is an eminent consultant in this area and who alleges that 17 life threatening errors in the administration of drugs have taken place and that there was careless practice in nursing procedures. The procedures for the administration of drugs, especially potent drugs, are clearly set down and require the involvement of two nurses. I cannot understand why her concerns were ignored by the board. The board should have indicated that a difficulty had arisen which would be detrimental to the service offered by the hospice. It is extraordinary that a letter from a consultant was not opened by the hospice board. It was alleged last night that a letter from the consultant was unopened.

When this took place the consultant wrote to University College Hospital and to the Western Health Board. At this stage alarm bells should have rung. The matter should have been investigated immediately. The concerns expressed by the consultant were serious. When were these difficulties brought to the Minister's notice and what action, if any, did he take to ensure the service was continued?

There were also allegations regarding working relationships. There is no excuse for this. Relationships should be sorted out; patients should not suffer because people have difficulty in their relationships. It is a matter of properly managing staff relations by people who are experienced in that area. If the hospice board did not have staff with that experience, they must have been available from the Western Health Board. Why were no questions asked by the Minister? Perhaps questions were asked. If so, he might tell us the replies he received. He allocated €2.37 million for 2004 when there was just one patient in the hospice. Did the Minister request or order an inquiry? Why did the Western Health Board not order an immediate inquiry when public money allocated to the hospice was not delivering a service?

The problem should not have reached this level. There have been calls for the immediate and full publication of the report to the board and the report by the Western Health Board. Until people see all the difficulties outlined and the recommendations to overcome them, they cannot have confidence in the service. Only then will the service move on and re-establish itself. It is extraordinary that this has gone on for nine months. It should have been nipped in the bud last May.

Why have the hospices in Portiuncula, Roscommon County Hospital and Mayo General Hospital been closed? Concern has been expressed by the communities involved that these hospice beds have also been closed.

Mr. T. O’Malley

I thank Deputies Michael D. Higgins and Neville for raising this issue. The Galway Hospice Foundation was founded in the mid-1980s with the introduction of the home care service in 1990.

The first patients in the in-patient unit were welcomed on 8 December 1997. The unit opened with five beds available for admission. The day care unit which opened in 1998 provides a programme of valued activities to improve the quality of life of the patient. The aim of the Galway hospice as stated in the operational policy is, "To enhance the care of patients with terminal illness — particularly those with advanced cancer and to support and assist their families and professional carers."

Nowadays, there is an even greater appreciation of the role of palliative care in the overall provision of health services. Palliative care is still a relatively new discipline and it is defined as the active total care of patients and their families by a multiprofessional team when the patient's disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment.

The report of the national advisory committee on palliative care was launched on 4 October 2001. It describes a comprehensive palliative care service and acts as a blueprint for its development. It is planned that the report's recommendations will be implemented over a five to seven-year period. Prior to the launch of the report, €3.8 million was allocated to the health boards and the Eastern Regional Health Authority to begin implementing the report's recommendations. At the beginning of 2001, an additional €3.3 million was also allocated to the boards for palliative care services. An additional €6.9 million revenue funding was made available for improvements in palliative care services in 2002. In 2003, additional funding of €2.45 million was made available and this year the figure is €1.2 million.

The Galway Hospice Foundation has for the past number of years provided a valuable service to cancer patients and their families in the west. I am aware that there are current difficulties surrounding the operation of the in-patient unit at the Galway Hospice and that no new patients are being admitted at present. However, home care and day care services continue to be provided to approximately 100 patients by the foundation, with those patients who require consultant-led specialist in-patient care being admitted to University College Hospital, Galway.

Mr. M. Higgins

Will the Minister of State forward a reply to me on the specific questions I asked?

Mr. T. O’Malley

The Western Health Board has informed my Department that an independent expert group was established by the Galway Hospice Foundation to review procedures at the hospice and it is expected that the report of the expert group will be available in the near future.

The Department continues to liaise with the Western Health Board and with the Galway Hospice Foundation. I understand that negotiations on a number of issues are ongoing. Given the sensitivity of such negotiations I would not wish to do or say anything which might negatively impact upon them. I do, however, remain prepared to intervene if and when it is considered by both sides that such an intervention is necessary.

Land Rezoning.

Mr. Cuffe

In the old days it was the councillors who did the dirty work. In Dublin, they rezoned land left, right and centre for inexplicable reasons. In the early 1990s the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Michael Smith, referred to rezoning becoming a debased currency in the debate about the proper planning and development of our counties and towns. He was referring to the bizarre rezonings being initiated by councillors in north Dublin. At the time he failed to direct county councillors to cut back on their excessive plans and proposals.

This time round the Minister is calling the shots. Despite publishing the national spatial strategy in November 2003, and decentralisation plans one year later, the Minister now wants to cover more of our countryside in concrete.

Let me describe the county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. It lies between the coast and the hills. Between the development along the coast and the hills lie villages and towns with character and identity. If councillors are instructed to carry out the Minister's diktat, these will be engulfed by suburban sprawl. Enniskerry, Shankill, Kilternan and Stepaside will be surrounded and ultimately swallowed up by an anonymous sea of housing and concrete, with no schools or public transport. Where will it end? Will the Minister instruct the councillors to rezone the Dublin mountains? Why is he hell-bent on rezoning? Can the Minister explain the dubious circumstances surrounding the written request of the chairman of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for more land to be rezoned? Did developers write to him? Will he explain his bizarre instructions to the county council to zone more land in its development plan.

Mr. Eamon Ryan

It is important that we also look at some of the numbers involved. To do this we must return to the review in April 2002 of the then strategic planning guidelines. Unfortunately, these annual reviews, which were continued up to the existence of the current Government, were discontinued after the arrival of the current Minister.

The figures then, on page 8 of the guidelines, concern the housing capacity available within the county at the time. If we add the various categories, some 21,500 houses could be built within the existing zoned land. This was before we take into account the additional 150 odd acres the council has since rezoned, which provide capacity for another several thousand houses. This more than adequately meets any projected increase in household requirements in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The new regional planning guidelines, which will update the strategic planning guidelines, have reduced the estimated household requirements by the year 2011. Existing zoned land would have no difficulty in meeting those ambitious expansion targets. There is no sense in looking at the numbers behind the Minister's demands that more rezoning should occur.

The new regional planning guidelines are at consultation phase but they should be taken into account. It is clear that the guidelines are again saying that any new rezoning should be on the basis of public transport connections. In the space that is available in my constituency in the areas around Kilternan, where we have already seen massive rezoning into the Dublin mountains, no public transport is available other than the 44 bus and it cannot cope with current traffic demands. Likewise, in the Blackglen Road area where we have seen massive rezoning and housing development and on the southern and western sides of the M50, which should always have been the barrier for any further development, this Government sees fit to instruct the council to continue rezoning into the Dublin mountains to eat up the remaining green belt that separates Bray from Dublin, Shankill from Bray and Wicklow from Dublin. For some reason, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government feels that rezoning is necessary.

The new regional planning guidelines indicate clearly that we need to use the existing housing stock in Dún Laoghaire, which is dramatically underutilised and where we have a large ageing population. Instead of rezoning further out in a slash and burn kind of process, the Minister should look at the innovative measures that the regional planning guidelines suggest should be used and use the existing housing stock which has public transport, shops and schools and which would provide an ideal environment in which to raise children. Instead, the Government has a slash and burn policy which means that any green belt must be rezoned. In the long run this atrocious policy will be seen as one of the greatest environmental disasters affecting our city.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. N. Ahern)

On 9 February 2004, the Minister, Deputy Cullen, issued a direction under section 31(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in regard to its draft development plan covering the period 2004-10. A planning authority is required to comply with any such direction. The direction judges that the draft Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown development plan is deficient in that it does not zone sufficient residential land to satisfy the requirements of the council's housing strategy.

Mr. Eamon Ryan

Nonsense.

Mr. N. Ahern

Such sufficient zoning is required under section 95(1)(a) of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Accordingly, the direction requires the council to amend the draft development plan to ensure that sufficient and suitable land is zoned as residential or for a mix of residential and other uses to meet the requirements of the housing strategy. Decisions as to the lands to be zoned to meet the requirements are entirely a matter for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The direction made no reference to the rezoning of green-belt for housing.

Mr. Eamon Ryan

Where should it rezone?

Mr. N. Ahern

That is entirely a matter for the local council.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy should allow the Minister of State to continue without interruption.

Mr. N. Ahern

I am happy to outline to the House the reasons for issuing this direction. My Department wrote to the planning authority in August 2003 indicating that it was of the view that the draft development plan did not zone sufficient residential land to meet the objectives of the council's housing strategy, as is required by section 95 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Accordingly, the council was asked to consider amending the draft development plan to ensure that sufficient land was proposed for residential zoning to meet the requirements of its housing strategy, as decided and laid down by it.

Notwithstanding my Department's letter of August 2003 and that in amending the draft development plan some additional land was proposed to be zoned as residential by the council, the advice available to the Minister was that the draft plan, as amended, still did not propose to zone sufficient residential land to meet the housing strategy requirements. The Minister came to the conclusion, therefore, that it was necessary to issue a direction in this case to ensure that the plan would, when adopted, satisfy the relevant statutory requirements. Otherwise, there was a possibility that the plan would subsequently be deemed invalid in that it would not be in compliance with the requirements of section 95 of the 2000 Act.

I am amazed to hear what the two Deputies said. Houses are necessary and a demand exists for them.

Mr. Cuffe

The Minister of State should not silence the debate, he should address the specific issue.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Cuffe should allow the Minister of State to speak without interruption.

Mr. N. Ahern

Extra people are on the waiting list for social housing. The council is aware of its responsibility and has drawn up a housing strategy in response to that. It has outlined what the needs are.

Mr. Eamon Ryan

Half the country has already been rezoned.

An Ceann Comhairle

If Deputy Ryan interrupts one more time, I will have no choice but to adjourn the House.

Mr. N. Ahern

The council has a responsibility to plan for what is contained in its strategy.

I stress the importance of housing strategies as part of the development plan for a local authority. The housing strategy is an integral part of the development plan for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and is critical to meeting the needs of those in the local authority's area of responsibility. Housing strategies must include measures to address the needs of all sectors of the existing and future population in the area of the development plan. While the population in general has increased in the past six years by 8%, the population of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has almost remained static — it increased by less than 1%.

The Government has emphasised that there must be an appropriate response to this need in terms of housing supply. We have worked to create an environment to achieve this through investment in infrastructure and the provision of guidelines to improve residential densities. We have seen the benefits in terms of overall housing supply, with a further year of record output last year, with 66,819 housing units completed. While the figures for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have increased, they are still below the projected demand of in the region of 2,300 houses per year. The target achieved is only 1,800, which implies a huge unmet demand.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 3 Mar 2004