Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Irish Parliament is united in this plea for the early release of Margaret Hassan. She is an Irish citizen who has devoted most of her working life to humanitarian work for the weakest and most vulnerable people in Iraq. I speak as the leader of an Irish party that has consistently opposed the illegal war in Iraq and expressed solidarity with the Iraqi people in all their suffering over the years. I join the Taoiseach and the Fine Gael leader in asking for a positive response from people in this Parliament who are friends of the Iraqi people to the request that Margaret Hassan be released forthwith.

I raise with the Taoiseach the discovery by the Tánaiste over recent days that there is a problem with people being inappropriately accommodated in acute hospitals who might better be located in step-down facilities. The Tánaiste told us there are 250 such patients on any given day in the Dublin hospitals and that she has decided this is one way to make progress in terms of relieving the pressure on acute hospitals.

We have all known about that for many years. The Tánaiste's predecessor, Deputy Martin, knew all about it when, on 29 July 2002, he announced the provision of 850 additional beds in community nursing units within three years. The Tánaiste now says, in answer to my colleague, Deputy Stagg, that not one of those beds has been provided but that she will examine it in detail very soon. We all know the Minister, Deputy Martin, ran the hospital service on the basis of announcements and reports, and that his presentation was usually extremely slick and clever. Will the Taoiseach explain how two years' after this particular announcement, made on 29 July 2002 to provide 850 additional beds to accommodate what are crudely called bed blockers, not one bed has been provided? Why did the then Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, make the announcement? Why did he go down the road of public private partnerships to alleviate this acute need? What is the reason for the delay?

At the time, it was specified that the community nursing units would be located on public land. The Tánaiste is making announcements that she will sell off this public land, assuming there is anything left after the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, is finished. He would sell Christ Church Cathedral if he thought he would get away with it. Where will the community nursing units be established? When will they be established? How has a project announced with such fanfare by the previous Minister for Health and Children been discovered by his successor not to have provided a single additional bed?

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