Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I am concerned about how easily the phrase "water tax" slipped off the Taoiseach's tongue. I hope it was not a Freudian slip. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, with the support of the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, announced that the buildings and land around all or most of the 15 psychiatric hospitals are to be sold. The intention is clearly to transfer this invaluable public asset to developers who will seek to make yet another killing in land speculation, apartment development or the like. This follows the similar land sale mania of the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, and the intention of the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children to facilitate a major privatisation in the health services through handing similar land around general hospitals to profit-seeking capitalists on considerable tax breaks from the Government, who will again seek to make significant profits out of human health and illness.

It appears that while Progressive Democrats Ministers sit on publicly owned assets in the Departments, they are like cats on a hot tin roof and cannot wait until they have flogged the assets to speculators and developers. All Independent Deputies in the Technical Group are extremely concerned about this departure. They speak with authority as health concerns played a very important role in the election of a number of them. Does the Taoiseach acknowledge the fear of many people, who are very concerned about the level of psychiatric care in this State, that the Progressive Democrats' rush to put the hospitals and land under the hammer will not be matched by a similar speed in providing the range of services urgently required by those needing psychiatric support services?

While it is agreed that the massive Victorian and Dickensian institutions do not represent the future for psychiatric care, does the Taoiseach not agree that these sites, which are publicly owned, should be seen as a major social and community asset rather than the subject of a quick property sale? Does he not agree that psychiatric services could be developed on these sites, taking account of modern conditions and ideas, and that other public medical services and services such as community and disability services could be developed as an alternative to simply getting rid of these sites and wondering what to do next? How far has this process gone and what has the Taoiseach approved in this regard?

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