Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this and I acknowledge the work done by Deputies O'Sullivan, Reilly and, in particular, my constituency colleague, Deputy Quinn in pursuing this issue and offering a reasonable solution to the challenges facing us in this legislation.

I am pleased the Minister is here. I accept and understand this is a busy period from a legislative point of view but it is regrettable that legislation is being rammed through. Two weeks ago, there was a week where there no votes, no legislation of any substance and a week where the Government was completely unaccountable, wasting the time of Opposition Deputies, when legislation such as this could have been taken and we could have dealt with it in depth.

I do not want to give a Second Stage speech but I have profound concerns about the HSE. It is a failed entity and the transfer of the assets, resources and board of St. Luke's Hospital to it is a fundamental error. St. Luke's Hospital has worked for decades, since the early 1950s, but it will be broken if it is subsumed into the monster that is the HSE.

As an Opposition Deputy who has only been here for three years, it is depressing to see Opposition Members putting forward constructive amendments to improve legislation, as we did on Committee Stage last week, only to see Deputies from the Government side coming into the committee to vote against them without having even listened to the debate. That is precisely what happened last week and I presume it will happen again today. I regret that.

There are two substantive amendments. The first was tabled by the Labour Party last week - and I support it completely - to secure the land and buildings of St. Luke's Hospital for public health care use, particularly cancer treatment. Deputy Reilly has also proposed an amendment that I understood from the Minister's comments on Committee Stage she would be willing to accept, that in the event the Labour Party amendment is not acceptable, the Minister would put in place a safeguard that would oblige the Minister to appear before the Dáil and the committee to detail any future changes to St. Luke's Hospital. It now appears neither of these propositions

is acceptable to the Government for some reason.

I reiterate to the Minister that Deputy Reilly, during his contribution on Committee Stage, said that he would table an amendment on Report Stage to have any review of services or new plans for St. Luke's Hospital brought before the committee by the Minister. This would allow Members to have their say and to act on the basis of full information. In response to that, the Minister for Health and Children replied that she was happy to agree to Deputy Reilly's suggestion. The Opposition Members present took that in good faith; unfortunately, it is not observed or being put forward in a substantive way in the amendment proposed by the Minister. As pointed out by Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, it is essentially an enabling provision which states that subject to the approval of the Minister the spirit of the proposal can be overridden. This is very unfortunate.

I accept that the Minister speaks in good faith when she states that she wishes to see the lands of St. Luke's preserved and used long into the future for the public health service. Most of us on the Opposition benches would like to see them committed to cancer care services. Unfortunately, the Minister's word will not be binding. Her word will not be enough if and when there is a change of government, and who knows who will be the future Minister for Health and Children. Unless it is written and woven into the legislation there will be no safeguard for St. Luke's Hospital. I concur with the point made by Deputy Quinn that St. Luke's Hospital will be given away and will no longer have the protection of legislation if the Bill is carried by the House today, even with the amendment proposed by the Minister. That would be unfortunate.

It is fair to state that while St. Luke's Hospital is located in my constituency, it provides a national service and has done so for many years. It would be a sad day for the health service, cancer care and the tens of thousands of people who have benefitted from the service through the years if either the Labour Party amendment or the Fine Gael amendment is rejected in the Chamber today. I appeal to the Minister to think carefully and to consider accepting one or other of the amendments proposed by the Opposition in good faith. It would stand to the Minister in the spirit of co-operation and trying to secure the best possible outcome for the hospital and its patients.

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