Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I had the joy of reading the Minister, Deputy Reilly's website today. To be fair, it is a very active website and it is clear the Minister is very active working hard as a TD, as is the right and duty of everybody in the House. However, I then found a statement on the website with regard to the national children's hospital from which I must quote as it raises grave concerns in the context of the provision of care in such a hospital. The statement refers to the resignation of Mr. Philip Lynch, the chair of national paediatric hospital project team, and reads:

This must lead to a re-think. There is an offer on the table from Noel Smyth which deserves consideration. We don't serve our children well by telling them fairy tales about a hospital that may never be built. Our sick children have a window of opportunity for optimum outcome that closes quickly and when they miss it they could be damaged for life. We must ensure that our sick children get care when they need it.

There is a worrying arrogance about this Minister and Government [Deputy Reilly is referring to the previous Government] that they refused to entertain a different view, from their own appointed chairman, especially when that view could be the difference between a realistic plan and a plan based in never never land.

This has been an ongoing saga for many years. There is almost a duty on everyone in the House to fully support the provision of a national children's hospital on the Mater site. There have been reports, reviews and recommendations. The Minister was obviously playing local politics with this press release, which makes no sense from any other angle. The Taoiseach regularly points out that the Minister, Deputy Reilly, is a general practitioner but to call the plan "never never land" is to downgrade the efforts of the previous Government and many previous Administrations to facilitate the building of a national children's hospital next to a hospital that has all the other tertiary services and is in line with the recommendation that it should be next to a university hospital.

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