Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The profits will be shared with public hospitals, so the €74 million forgone by insurers will be made up by the Exchequer. Money will also be made from leasing the land and, in some cases, through profit-sharing arrangements. The facilities in those hospitals will have to be made available at discounted prices to all patients. That is a very good deal from the point of view of access by patients to the facilities and from a financial perspective. We estimate that acute beds cost €1 million each but these beds will be provided for less than 50% of the cost of providing them in the traditional manner.

In May, Beaumont hospital sought my permission for co-location. The advice, however, was that it did not need my permission for co-location but needed it to lease land from the Department. That permission was to be granted by amending the statutory instrument which established the hospital. My officials were preparing such an amendment when the issue pertaining to the 1961 Act arose. Once legal doubts were placed on the existence of these bodies, I could not give them any new powers. That is why we are using this opportunity to put them beyond doubt.

Even after this Bill is enacted, we cannot amend the statutory instruments but will need new legislation next year to deal with the powers of Ministers to establish bodies. The legal advice suggests that the powers of the 1961 Act, which would be subject in 2007 to a higher level of legal test than in 1961 or even 1971, are too sweeping. The Minister has broad powers to establish almost anything by way of statutory instrument or secondary legislation and that, according to the Attorney General and supported by outside legal advice, is not legally sound. That is why we are reinforcing the law through legal engineering.

We will deal later with some of the more specific questions that arose, but on the reference by Deputy Reilly to Triad Hospitals, that company is not involved with any of the co-location projects. It was involved with the existing Beacon Hospital but I am unsure whether it still is. It is not involved as the operator in any of these hospitals.

When this Bill is passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and signed into law by the President, these bodies will be frozen in the sense of what they can do legally. Without wider legal powers by way of new legislation, it will not be possible to assign new powers to the 19 bodies or allow them to engage in activities which do not fall within the remit.

Deputy Ó Caoláin asked me the number of beds in each of the locations. The number is 180 at Beaumont and the total will come to 1,163 in the various hospitals when the Blanchardstown and Tallaght proposals are finalised. I can provide a specific breakdown of the figures for the Deputy when we debate the issue. Over recent years, we have provided approximately 1,500 new acute beds. The commitment to 3,000 beds was made in respect of the period from 2002 to 2011. We expect to provide 1,000 beds from this project and the national development plan for the health service provides for a further 500 acute hospital beds, which will bring us close to 3,000 acute beds.

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