Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

It is almost unbelievable that yet again we have to raise as a matter of urgency the desperate plight of cystic fibrosis sufferers in Ireland. It is disgraceful that we can only give voice to their urgent need some 35 minutes to midnight in the dying hours of this Dáil session. There are fewer than 2,000 cystic fibrosis sufferers in this country yet they suffer from a desperately serious condition and they have been treated appallingly by successive Governments. There is no excuse for this and the present Government should hang its head in shame.

In 2008, after a campaign by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, the Department of Health and Children and the HSE publicly committed to a 34-bed inpatient cystic fibrosis unit at St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin and promised that the adjoining cystic fibrosis day care facility with ensuite day care bedrooms would be operational by 2010. The proposed cystic fibrosis unit was to be part of a 120 bed multi-story development, to include the 34 bed in-patient cystic fibrosis unit and a separate floor for the day care centre encompassing eight single ensuite day care bedrooms. Contracts were signed with a project manager for the development project and there were a number of meetings with the appointed architects. Management at St. Vincent's gave the project very high priority and full planning permission was granted, with an expected completion time of the end of 2010.

In the meantime the HSE and Department of Health and Children agreed to provide 14 interim ensuite rooms. In August 2008, eight of these rooms became operational. In March 2009 there was a postponement of the promised development. The HSE said it would not have funds to begin construction of the new block at St. Vincent's until 2011 at the earliest. The Minister then said developers would be asked to tender for the project on the understanding that they would not be paid any money until it was completed. In July last year, St. Vincent's confirmed a number of builders had tendered to construct the new facilities and it aimed to appoint a firm to take on the job in October or November 2009. Now the plan has been thrown into chaos again. It was revealed on 23 June that no tender has yet been awarded to any firm to construct the new €40 million unit. The lowest bidder, Michael McNamara & Company, has stated that St. Vincent's only issued it with a letter signalling its intention to award it the contract on 23 April last. The company said in a statement: "This was some four months after the tender was submitted, therefore the main delay in the process of appointing a contractor has been on the part of the client." We are told Michael McNamara & Company had difficulty getting financial backing to proceed with the project and the company was advised by the hospital that it was moving on to discuss the project with the second lowest bidder.

Delay has been piled upon delay and cystic fibrosis sufferers continue to be deprived of the single rooms and other facilities they so desperately need. It matters little who is responsible for.dispute between the hospital and the developer. Ultimate responsibility belongs at the door of the Minister for Health and Children and her Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government colleagues. The Minister made a definite commitment and it has not been fulfilled. A cohort of our fellow citizens have a limited life expectancy and a number have passed on, all too sadly.

Shameful is the only way to describe this situation. The population with cystic fibrosis is relatively small. Ireland has the highest prevalence of cystic fibrosis in the world and we have the most severe types of cystic fibrosis in the world. As the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland has repeatedly pointed out, Ireland has the poorest resources for cystic fibrosis patients in Europe. In comparative terms, we are not talking about a hugely elaborate and expensive development. Many private hospitals and clinics, luxury hotels, clubs and leisure facilities of all kinds were built in this country during the Celtic tiger years with massive Government tax breaks. We are talking about many multiples of the cost of the unit at St. Vincent's expended on these tax breaks, literally untold tens of millions because the Government never properly accounted for the money lost to the Exchequer. The Government always refused to look into the question that many Members put time after time.

Against that background we have the ongoing shameful neglect of cystic fibrosis sufferers. It is a terrible judgment on the inability of the Government to make a firm commitment to these very ill and vulnerable people, to follow through on that commitment and to get the desired result. Regrettably, that failure on the part of the Government reflects very badly in the public eye on all who hold elected positions here. It places a question mark over the capacity of these institutions to serve the citizens who elect Members to this House to serve them and this must not be forgotten. I heard the Minister's latest pledge on this issue at the conclusion of her contribution here. She simply must accept that Members will remain sceptical. While it is all very well to make commitments or to state the wheels are in motion once again, delivery is required, as is the evidence that works are ready and are getting under way. Nothing else will assuage Members' fears that they are poised to see a further repeat of all the problems that too sadly have been repeated already in this sad saga.

I make no apology for once again using this opportunity to call on the Government before the Dáil rises for the summer recess tomorrow to sort out this mess and to intervene directly now. This should not be done from a distance or by checking with someone in the HSE, but by taking ministerial responsibility and collective Cabinet responsibility to ensure these facilities are built and are up and running. That is how important this issue is. There can be no contemplation of any further excuses on this matter. It is a case of the Minister simply doing it.

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