David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue this evening and I thank the Minister of State for her attendance. I am sure she has a great awareness of and a deep interest in this issue as well. At the outset, I will outline the historical background. In 2006, the HSE decided to procure a PET-CT scanner for Cork University Hospital, CUH. In 2008, planning permission was granted for a €6.85 million diagnostic and treatment facility. Construction began in 2009 and in July of that year, it was advised that the PET scanners in CUH and St. James's Hospital were near completion. As the scanner in St. James's Hospital has been in operation for some time, what is the delay in the CUH? Why is its scanner not up and running?

I have been raising this issue for quite some time and in November 2010, the HSE advised that a total of 5,551 PET scans were carried out in the eight months from January to August 2010. The Minister of State might indicate at some point how many scans were carried out altogether in 2010 and to date in 2011, how many people in the HSE south region are awaiting PET scans and how long must they wait before being scanned because they must travel to Dublin for them. By September 2010, I understand that more than €1 million had been spent by HSE south on PET scans in Dublin, which sounds like a terrible waste when a €6.85 million facility lies idle in Cork.

During an Adjournment debate in November 2010, I was informed that funding had been made available for a consultant radiologist with a special interest in PET-CT and that this post was to be considered by the HSE's consultant appointments advisory committee at its November meeting. I was further informed that the recruitment process for a number of clinical support staff would commence in January 2011. As it was intended to proceed with the PET-CT service at CUH early in 2011, I thought everything was fine. On 14 February, I was informed that a letter of approval for the post of consultant radiologist with a special interest in PET-CT was received from the consultant and that sanction had also been received to recruit a principal physicist. On 22 June, six years after the original decision, I was advised that the CUH was now working on the final phase of the commencement of the PET-CT service and that the HSE national recruitment office was arranging to advertise for the post of clinical specialist radiographer. I also was advised that it was arranging to advertise for two senior radiographer posts and that because it was planned to have the service in operation by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, until then patients would be obliged to continue to travel to Dublin for scans.

Why is it taking so long to get this service up and running? It is an awful shame that this service, costing €6.85 million, is lying idle while in the meantime people, many of whom are quite ill, must travel to Dublin at great cost and inconvenience. I ask the Minister of State to find out and then inform Members of the reason for the delay, what has been holding up the service and the date on which it will be in operation. Will this be done by the end of the year? I note the project's history and suggest that if this continues for much longer, the scanner will go the way of the electronic voting machines as the technology will be out of date. This makes no sense and I hope the Minister of State has some good news.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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It probably is unusual for Ministers not to read out their scripts in response to Adjournment matters but having heard what the Deputy had to say, were I to so do I would be embarrassed, which he would not like. I believe the reply in the script is precisely the same as that which the Deputy has been getting all through the years. Yes, a principal physicist now has been hired but that is about it. The other posts as listed are being advertised. I will not read out the response I have to hand but having heard the Deputy's contribution, I will make further and more in-depth inquiries. I will find out what is the delay, whether the posts have been advertised and, if so, whether there has been a response and will then revert to the Deputy.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.