Michael Woods (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)

I did not interrupt the Deputy. I do not intend to take much of his time, but this is my hospital and I have a great interest in it. I deeply regret what Fine Gael and Labour did to it the last time. It was a terrible scandal and that still exists in front of us today. We have seen that 20% of the beds in the hospital are now taken up with private beds. I should welcome very much the 180 beds that would come with this hospital in Beaumont; as far as I am concerned, they cannot come fast enough. That is what the Minister is trying to do. I know that situation, it is enormously important and I am totally opposed to any suggestion of delay. That is all there was in the amendment put on Second Stage. It declined to give a Second Reading to the Bill on the grounds that it bundles together urgent and uncontroversial matters with those the Opposition alleges are in no way urgent. This is politics. It is development for people and has been urgent for a long time. I am glad we are discussing it again. It was all set to go in 1982 but was stopped and the site was taken back. Fortunately, after 1987 when Fianna Fáil was back in government, it was proposed that consultants should have private clinics on the grounds in order that they could be near to the hospital in between times. This was also opposed. However, they are there now. Let us have the private hospital there also. It was due a long time ago. Let us not delay it any longer, or play around and let on there is another reason for it not being located there. There is a hardcore reason people are preventing it from being on the north side of Dublin. For approximately 25 years prior to Beaumont Hospital being built there was resistance to it being developed on the north side of Dublin. Eventually we broke this down and it was developed.

The theory of having wonderful hospitals for everybody which meet the highest possible standards is grand and we would all like to see it happen. However, the practice was not grand for people on the north side of Dublin, as can be seen. We must face the reality that almost half the population have health insurance and the reason is people want to have it. They contribute to it during their lifetime and want the service to be available. They are entitled to have provision made for this and to have it on a State-owned campus. There is no reason they should not have it.

I fully support the Minister and congratulate her on pressing ahead with the Bill.

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