Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I thank Deputy Paul McGrath for sharing time with me. He and I have fought manfully on the floor of the House to try to ensure that the rightful property of the people of Longford and Westmeath, Mullingar General Hospital, will be delivered. It is a shame this Government has been pussyfooting around, foot-dragging and obfuscating for the past eight years. It is scandalous to see a building with people lying in beds with an occupancy rate of 130% overlooking a building, as Deputy Paul McGrath has said, with four floors uncompleted, some of it almost dilapidated. It has been there for eight years, turning grey while people look out the windows.

We have the second most efficient hospital in the country, and if this were delivered, we would have the most efficient. That is a compliment to the professionals, nurses, attendants and ambulance staff — everyone involved. They are asking what the timeframe is, when the money is to be provided, and when the hospital is to be finished. It is serving the people of Longford and Westmeath, and the commitment was given back in the 1980s when Longford did not have the services. It is time to get off the fence and fulfil the commitment. What has happened is disgraceful. It is a scandal, and it is about time that the Government got its priorities right.

Mullingar General Hospital needs 311 beds but has only 203. The occupancy rate is 130% in winter. It is disgraceful that we can waste €52 million on electronic voting when another €20 million would have completed the hospital. Can anyone explain this? The Tánaiste opened the new unit, and neither Deputy Paul McGrath nor I attended — rightly so, since it was a charade. It was an opportunity for photographs, with people straining their necks at the optimum angle to be recorded in the local newspapers. That type of cynicism has destroyed politics, and the people of Westmeath together with the people of Longford which may be included in the new constituency, have sent us here tonight. They are saying to us that we must get the hospital delivered, since they have been let down by the Government. It is an absolute scandal.

The Government should forget all its obfuscation and tell us when it will provide the money and why it has taken so long. They could have built the Great Wall of China in eight years, yet we cannot complete a hospital in Mullingar. Every time we attend a meeting, the public asks us when it will be delivered. I tell them that Deputy Cassidy promised upon his election in 2002 that he would be like a magician, arriving in a helicopter with schools and hospitals. Three years later, we are still waiting. Now the Minister should get off the fence. The people of Longford and Westmeath want Mullingar General Hospital finished once and for all for the general population who pay their taxes. We are fed up being treated like second-class citizens.

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