Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will carry my burdens as well. We are talking about a 130-bed hospital. It had a very good track record, not only in the early maternity area. Even accepting that it is not Government policy or best international practice to have stand-alone small maternity units, the issue of elective surgery must be considered. Such surgery was being provided continually. One should also bear in mind that the vast majority of the elective surgical procedures concerned public patients contracted through the NTPF or the special delivery unit. When the Minister addressed us today, he did not make reference to that other than by making reference to the issue of maternity services. Could we have clarity on that?

Although the Government states there is joined-up thinking and that silos have been removed, and while there are buzzwords floating around, any quick analysis of the actual cost to the State in terms of job losses and the consequent impact on the social welfare budget and the subsequent loss of revenue, combined with an analysis with regard to NAMA, debt write-down, interest rates, and purchase of the facility as a going concern demonstrates we are down, demonstrates it is no longer a question of tens of millions of euro but of a few million euro here or there.

Did the Department look at the offers that were put on the table, including the Barry proposal and the Centric proposal? Did the Department have any discussions with NAMA about how this service could be maintained for a period? Unless NAMA can tell us otherwise - even though it has decided not to come to the committee - it seems to be accepted that the projections were that it would reach profitability towards the end of this year. Perhaps we can get some clarity on that.

The key issue is whether this high-level group's examination to assess the feasibility of a HSE purchase of the hospital was just based on maternity issues alone.