Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to participate in this important debate. I want to focus on one aspect of cancer services of particular concern to me.

Deputy Reilly has pointed out that there are two specific fundamental conflicts at issue here. There is the conflict between the Minister for Health and Children's opinion on the ability of the HSE to deliver the proposed cancer services and the different take of the HSE chief executive, Professor Drumm, on that issue. Then there is the conflict as regards the timetable laid down by the Minister with a delivery date of 2011, and the actual timetable, namely, 2015. It is yet another example of the push-pull leadership of the health service, with two people in charge displaying two separate and diverging opinions and nobody taking responsibility. It is very unfortunate that St. Luke's Hospital finds itself at the middle of this mess. St. Luke's, as the House knows, is located in Rathgar, at the heart of my constituency in Dublin South-East and has consistently been rated one of Ireland's best hospitals. It has delivered a quality caring service to patients throughout the length and breadth of this country. It has built itself an unblemished reputation for the type of health service to which the entire State ought to aspire.

It is bad enough that St. Luke's is being shut by the Minister's administration. Even worse, in the midst of this chaotic mess there is a grave risk that it cannot be replaced properly or in time. If neither the Minister nor the chief executive of the HSE knows when it will be replaced, how may they be trusted to tell us how this will happen? To add insult to injury, it is proposed that St. Luke's will be replaced by a public private partnership, as alluded to by my colleague, Deputy Reilly. For 26 years an organisation called the Friends of St. Luke's has proved itself to be just that when successive Ministers for Health, mostly from the Fianna Fáil Party, did not exactly fit the description of friends of St. Luke, given the endemic problem of underfunding, which has caused enormous suffering for cancer patients.

For 26 years the Friends of St. Luke's have worked tirelessly to raise money for the hospital, through their fundraising. The local community has done the same, as have families and friends of patients attending the hospital. Fundraising among supporters and well wishers has gathered more than €22 million for the upkeep of the hospital. They have to do this in order to supplement the inefficiencies and underfunding caused by successive Ministers. Unfortunately, this Minister has presided over the same problem. They have done this work tirelessly and with admirable energy. I cannot understand why this is now being ignored, as the future of this hospital is very unsure.

When the Minister shuts St. Luke's I want to know whether she will refund this money to all the people who have donated generously and selflessly to ensure a proper cancer service for the country. Deputy Harney has proven to be no friend of St. Luke's. We have seen this over a number of years. It is absolutely unacceptable that there is no clear co-ordination of the move towards a replacement for St. Luke's Hospital. Replacing it with something better would be acceptable, but we have not seen any evidence for this or any reports to show it will happen. We do not know when or where or how it will be replaced. There is a vague commitment as regards St. James's Hospital but we have seen nothing concrete. What worries me most, and the Minister should be concerned about this as well, is that Fianna Fáil candidates and Deputies in the run up to the last election were blaming the Minister and her party for the failures in the health service. I witnessed this in my constituency and I see across the floor of the House, Deputy Andrews, my colleague in Dublin South-East, who has given commitments as regards St. Luke's Hospital. The reality is that when the Minister carries out the national roll-out of cancer services we have been promised over time and the failings in the system are exposed, it is the Progressive Democrats and Deputy Harney, especially, who will be held responsible. Fianna Fáil will wash its hands of the PDs as they did before the last election. Rather than going from four to two Deputies I fear that her party will go from two to zero.

See this speech in context