Mr. Dan Smith:

The sleep clinic was transferred to St. Joseph's in Raheny because of problems finding beds in Beaumont. It was funded entirely by an outside agency on a charity basis and a five bed day ward was converted into three private rooms. The condition is that only public patients can be treated or diagnosed in the unit. Private patients are not allowed in. A control room was also installed. The individual donor also wrote a cheque for €150,000 as a downpayment on three years' salary for a respiratory scientist to man the unit, with a promise to write a further cheque to meet any shortfall after two years. The HSE had no input into this donation. I do not know what has happened since but the sleep clinic was closed in mid-December and no sleep tests have been carried out there. Nobody seems to know what is happening. I have written to the HSE.