Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Member from the Upper House.

Does the Chairman know whether St. Brigid's and Owenacurra have written to the health committee? Deputy Higgins has made a good point there. As I said, I believe the health committee should be the first one to examine this and then, as Deputy Buckley said, if it is not examined, it can come to us. I still stand by what I said earlier, that if the HSE were to come in we have already received a petition to put before it. Obviously Deputy Buckley is familiar with his local area and the local issues there and I accept what he is saying. It is not a political issue. Other members are more aware of the issues with St. Brigid's. If the HSE were to come in, we could put the questions from the petitioners to it, short-circuit the whole thing and hopefully get a resolution. That would be a good day's work.

Does the Chairman or the clerk to the committee know if the petitioners have written to the Joint Committee on Health? As I understand it, Deputy Buckley is a member of that committee or a substitute member. If the petitioners have done so, we should see what that committee does first and then offer to look at it jointly or come back to the issue at our next meeting.