Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for sharing time. I support the amendment tabled by the Labour Party. It is extraordinary that on the penultimate day of this session we have been presented with such emergency legislation. We are being asked to rush through all Stages of the Bill this evening. The Bill itself was only published last Friday, 14 December. The Minister informed the Opposition parties on Thursday, 13 December, of the Government's intentions with regard to this Bill and sought their co-operation.

As in all such cases, a great deal of trust is being asked of the Opposition parties. The Government is armed with authoritative legal advice, including that of the most senior law officer who sits at the Cabinet, the Attorney General. We are told that concerns were first raised about the powers of the Minister for Health and Children under the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act 1961 in the context of establishing the new national paediatric hospital during the past summer. It has also been stated, separately, that the Minister for Health and Children was provided with legal analysis on 22 June which suggested there might be complications related to the co-location of private hospitals in the grounds of St. James's and Beaumont Hospitals.

I asked the Taoiseach earlier but received nothing but a blank response, so I ask the Minister who provided this legal analysis. Was it sought by her and did she initiate an inquiry? Did it arise during the tendering process for the co-located private for profit hospitals or was it raised by one of the companies tendering for these lucrative contracts?

The Opposition has sought access to the Minister's legal advice and she undertook at the briefing meeting on 13 December to ask the Attorney General if this was possible. The Attorney General responded on the same day in a letter to the Minister, copies of which were forwarded to the Opposition, that the advice is privileged and should not be released. There may be a good reason for that and it may be the case that the Government must act in this way to protect the State from potentially costly litigation. Again, however, the Opposition is being asked to take this on trust.

I ask the Minister to give us the information in response to the reasonable and fair questions I put to her rather than hide behind the smokescreen provided by the Attorney General. I acknowledge we must allow the Government some leeway. The Attorney General's advice is that primary legislation needs to be enacted as a matter of urgency to protect the 19 existing bodies established by statutory instruments under the 1961 Act. If that is the case, this legislation is necessary to ensure the continuation of the work of these bodies and to that extent should be supported. However, the questions I have raised need to be addressed.

The other major element of this Bill, namely, the extension of powers to the boards of St. James's and Beaumont hospitals in order to facilitate the Government's infamous private for profit hospital co-location plan, cannot and will not be supported by Sinn Féin. It is ironic that the first reference in legislation to co-location should come in a Bill which is designed to protect the State from a constitutional challenge on the grounds that an Act of the Oireachtas gives powers to a Minister that are too wide ranging. We have never had a thorough debate on the issue of co-location and no legislation has been brought in respect of it. This is a significant change in our health care and hospital system which will reinforce the two-tier nature of the system and swing State policy very definitely towards privatisation, yet no Oireachtas approval was sought for co-location and we are being presented this evening with a Bill that, in traditional style, is being rushed through the House to be guillotined in the last days before Christmas.

Surely the lesson to be learned from the situation that led to this Bill is about the danger that arises when the powers of Ministers and the Cabinet are taken too far. We have on many occasions raised concerns about Bills in which extensive powers are given to Ministers by means of ministerial orders. The role of the Oireachtas in democratic decision making and scrutiny of legislation has been weakened. When important bodies are established and funded to the tune of many millions of euro by the State they should be established by legislation, with all the checks and balances and the democratic accountability that entails, but the record of this Government and the Minister on accountability is lamentable. The Health Service Executive has been established as a buffer against accountability from two directions, Oireachtas Members and communities.

The Government has signalled its refusal to remove the sections it has inserted in this Bill to facilitate co-location. The Schedule to the Bill proposes to amend ministerial orders and give them legislative force. This will mean giving powers to the boards of St. James's and Beaumont hospitals to proceed with co-location. Therefore, Sinn Féin cannot support the Bill.

In June, a Protestant organisation, the Adelaide Hospital Society, joined forces with a Catholic one, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, to warn against the trend in health care policy represented by co-location, and in this festive week of Christian belief I want to repeat their warning. They stated co-location "sends out a powerful message about Government backing and support for the existing two-tier hospital system" and "represents a significant threat to the fundamental values of care and justice, which require that health provision is seen first and foremost as an essential service, which should be available on the basis of need". The Minister has heard that argument being made repeatedly in this House but she has ignored it. A Government which sponsors such a scheme can never be relied upon to deal with the underlying inequalities which contribute significantly to ill-health in society.

Authoritative opinion on the front line of hospital care states we need 3,000 additional hospital beds to replace those taken out of the system in the 1980s and to cater for the 25% population increase since then. However, beds have continued to be removed from hospitals until the present, including beds taken this year from the hospital in my community of Monaghan. This Government claims it will increase bed numbers by 1,500 but no less than 1,000 of these are supposed to come from the co-location scheme facilitated by this Bill. The Minister claims that 1,000 private beds will be transferred from public hospitals to the private co-located hospitals, thus freeing up that number of public beds but she has never answered parliamentary questions I and other Deputies put regarding the number of beds to be transferred at each hospital site. The reality is that co-location cannot provide the additional beds required. The Doctors Alliance for Better Public Healthcare has pointed out that most patients admitted as inpatients to public hospitals are not suitable for care in a private hospital, including most patients admitted through accident and emergency departments.

For the reasons I have articulated in the short time available to me, I cannot support this Bill as it stands. I regret that because I was prepared to support it on the basis of the arguments regarding the named bodies. If this is a means to facilitate the Minister's proposals on further privatising health care and deepening the apartheid-style divide in health services, I strongly oppose her.

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