Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)

Last week I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for Health and Children on the construction of our new community hospital in Kenmare, County Kerry. I was disappointed with his reply, which was that this is a matter for the Health Service Executive, HSE. With all due respect, this is nonsense. I really appreciated the new workmanlike approach of the new, Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and their Ministers. I did not expect a new Minister to do exactly what he criticised his predecessor for doing, that is, hiding behind the HSE.

This matter is of national importance. While Kenmare hospital is important to me and to my constituents, there is a bigger national issue. Will the new Minister in future when asked health-related questions hide behind the HSE? I genuinely hope that he will not and I hope the reply I received last week will be a one off. Surely the buck stops on all health matters with the Minister for Health and Children. All I want is straight answers to straight questions with no messing around. I thought we had moved away from that type of political gerrymandering. I expect more from the new Government, which I hope will be forthcoming. The people voted for change in the recent general election and the Government parties are doing their best given the dire financial situation in which we find ourselves but it does not look good when a Member of this House asks a straight, honest question and cannot get a straight, honest answer.

We are fortunate in Kenmare that over the years we had an excellent matron who had an excellent staff running a great community hospital. We have a new matron who again is highly respected in the community, as are the staff who work with her. The ambulance personnel provide an invaluable service covering a wide hinterland and they have to be complimented on their excellent local knowledge and their impressive response times to incidents in the town and its environs. Our hospital is very important to us.

I acknowledge the work done on this issue by my father, former Deputy Jackie Healy-Rae, and the commitment of the previous Government. The then Taoiseach included the construction of a new community hospital in Kenmare in the capital programme for 2010. This project did not fall out of the sky. It was lobbied for but there was a genuine case for a new community hospital. It had been prioritised by the HSE previously and it was debated at meetings I attended with the HSE. It was put forward as a priority.

Since then the project has progressed, planning permission has been granted, drawings completed and contracts are all in order. Considerable funding has been expended. The people of Kenmare and its environs have waited for construction to start for long enough. In 1999 when I started out on the old Southern Health Board, the first motion I tabled at the first meeting I attended was to prioritise an new extension for the hospital. Little did I think all those years ago that I would be standing in the House tonight still looking for the same thing - a fair deal for the people of Kenmare and its environs. I acknowledge the HSE's work on this project, in particular, that of its local management in County Kerry who committed to prioritising a new community hospital for Kenmare.

There is not a family in the locality that has not been affected in a positive way by the excellent care given by the matron and staff in the hospital. They deserve a new hospital, as do the people, and if it is provided, the capital expenditure involved will be minuscule when compared to the service that will be provided for many years to come. I sincerely call on the new Government and the Minister to allow construction to go ahead. I thank the Minister of State for taking the matter on behalf of the Minister and I hope he will give a positive response without hiding behind the HSE. That is not what Members or the people expect from the new Government. We expect much better.

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