Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I was in Strasbourg at the European Parliament and my flight connection was late. I hasten to add that while the flight was late; I was not. I was perfectly on time, but these things happen sometimes and ministerial air transport is not as available as it was in the past. I had to get a later flight. Thanks to modern technology, I have been able to tune in on my iPhone for most of the morning and have followed the proceedings. I will touch on some of the questions and Mr. O'Brien and Deputy Lynch will want to come back on others. There is probably no point in making my opening statement at this stage.

On the national rare diseases plan, I am very keen to see a national rare diseases office opened this year, if at all possible. It will not require a huge spend this year. People can often be very frustrated when a great deal of work is done and programmes, statements and strategies are produced and agreed which are not followed up on. It is important that we at least make a start on that one in 2015.

Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked about the children's hospital and satellite centres. The planning application for the children's hospital on the St. James's campus will be lodged in June. The design is being finalised and is hugely exciting. It will be an iconic building. It is really impressive and even has its own football pitch. At the same time, the planning applications for the satellite centres at Blanchardstown and Tallaght will also be lodged. While it will then depend on An Bord Pleanála providing planning permission, there have been extensive pre-planning negotiations. Assuming it gives permission within 18 or 36 weeks, as the case may be, we can certainly commence site works by the end of the year with tendering and construction commencing in 2016. There has been a great deal of talk about what we are going to do in 2016 and how we are going to commemorate the centenary. I am very enthused by all the different plans for 2016, but there will be no better testament than to begin the construction of our national children's hospital on the site of the South Dublin Union, which, of course, was one of the sites of the Rising 100 years ago. It will be to recall the commitment in the Proclamation to cherish all the children equally. Construction is to start on the satellite centres next year and they can be open to see patients at Blanchardstown and Tallaght in 2017. It will be 2019 before the main hospital at St. James's will be fully constructed and it will start to see the first children then and be fully commissioned over a period of months after than.

The Deputy is completely right about the minor injury units. There are units at Loughlinstown, Smithfield, Cork, Dundalk, Roscommon and Monaghan. They are not open 24-7 but they are open a great deal of the time. Mr. Tony O'Brien and I have discussed ways in which we can advertise that a bit better in order that people know these services are available, use them a bit more and are not waiting in emergency department waiting rooms when they could be seen elsewhere. The downside is that the HSE will no doubt be criticised for spending money on PR again, but this is an occasion when spending money on a bit of advertising and public relations makes sense.

I thank Deputy Mitchell O'Connor for her comments on the public health (alcohol) Bill. We have a lot of problems in our health service, not least issues such as overcrowding in emergency departments and long waits for treatment. We can address that in the short term by-----