Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

Late last year the McNamara Construction building empire collapsed as a result of huge debts. The National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, instigated the collapse by putting McNamara Construction into receivership. The ripples from that event have spread far and wide.

In Donegal North-East, Letterkenny hospital and the people of Donegal have long and eagerly awaited the provision of an extension for a new accident and emergency ward with three modern floors above it. Indeed, recently I had the opportunity to tour the premises with the assistant manager, Mr. Paddy Rooney, and to see the huge potential of that building. The decision on McNamara Construction means that the project has stalled. It should have been completed by spring this year but we now understand from the management of Letterkenny General Hospital that it will not be completed until spring 2012. Furthermore, many of the subcontractors have been left in a desperate financial situation. These are small businesses which, although they were subcontractors, presumed they were in safe hands financially because they were carrying out a public contract. They have been left in a mess.

Before the general election, the candidates or Deputies of at least one of the Government parties assured the electorate that they would deal with this issue, but the Government has been in office for almost 100 days and there is still no resolution. It is time for the Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, and the Minister, Deputy James Reilly, to intervene urgently. There have been knock-on effects. There is a spill-over of patients on trolleys into the coffee dock of the hospital, clinics have been cancelled and there is talk of ward closures. There were a number of quotes reported in the media today from the front-line staff. Nurses said: "We don't have the staff or the facilities to cope; simple as that."; "The situation is intolerable and cannot continue. Morale is very, very low."; "We are at breaking point. We do our best with what we have but there is only so much we can do."; and "Many of us are at breaking point.". That is the response of the nurses, the people whom we trust to work on the front line. They are being failed by the Government in this matter. It must be tackled.

I raised this issue with the chairman of NAMA, Mr. Frank Daly, at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly recently. He is a decent and honourable man and he spoke about the difficulty and pain of sending a company, in this case a building empire, into receivership and how there would have to be pain. In this case the people and subcontractors of Donegal North-East are feeling the pain. I urge the Government to do the decent thing. It can hide behind legalities and talk about this and that, but the fact remains that the subcontractors, working on a public contract, have not been paid. They are owed tens of thousands of euro each. They are on the verge of collapse. More important than that shameful episode is the fact that there will be a one year delay, at least, in delivering this critical public infrastructure. It is currently lying empty and not delivering the services that are required.

I wish to express my serious concern about the demands of the HSE for further cuts at Letterkenny General Hospital. It has gone to the well many times with its demands for cutbacks and the well is now thoroughly dry. There have been cuts of €3 million in Letterkenny General Hospital in the last year. I urge the Minister of State and her colleagues to avoid impacting on front-line services and to guarantee to me and other representatives of the people of Donegal that they will provide the necessary resources so front-line staff will no longer be obliged to offer the quotes we have read in recent days.

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