Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I will assist the Taoiseach even more with it. I would be quite happy to reinforce the legal underpinning of the agencies in question quite speedily but the legislation that has been published contains an entire four pages that deal with the legal obstacle that arose regarding the transfer of the lands at Beaumont and St. James's hospitals for the purpose of establishing co-located hospitals. If the Taoiseach is prepared to remove this section from the Bill and deal with it separately at another time, we can agree to the legal underpinning without any problem.

The Taoiseach stated the Attorney General advised that the matter be dealt with as a matter of urgency. If he offered this advice last October, how come the matter only become urgent the week before Christmas? What on earth has the provision concerning St. James's and Beaumont hospitals to do with the legislation? The Bill represents a form of legislative camouflage to provide cover in the House. It is being stated there is some kind of emergency with regard to the legal underpinning of bodies in order to slip through legislation that will allow the Government hand over public hospital lands for use by private hospitals.

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