Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

As incredulous as I was with the Minister's reply to me on 13 March, which opened with the words, "I am not aware of the comments referred to by the Deputy", I am doubly incredulous that the Minister would repeat the same line in his response to the question today, particularly given that I outlined all this to him at last week's meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children and pointed out the deficiencies in the report's position. I pointed out also that it was a majority report and that there was a clear dissenting voice among the eight, that of Dr. Illona Duffy, a general practitioner representative from my community. I find it incredible that the Minister would repeat the assertion that he is not aware of the comments to which I referred. These comments have been sent to him directly and for him to repeat today that he is unaware of them is beyond belief.

I outlined last week and I repeat again now that the terms of reference were clearly not met by the eight-person group established to carry out the feasibility study. The report states that costs "could not be clearly defined", yet the terms of reference require that it "provide a detailed analysis of the pay and non-pay costs". That is confirmation, in the words of the report, signed off on by Dr. Doherty, that Dr. Duffy's claim that the terms of reference had not been met is indeed the case. The time period was inadequate - six weeks within which to carry out a study on an important proposal regarding the future of services at Monaghan General Hospital. Last week, when I put the question to the Minister, he indicated, and he has repeated it again, that he agreed with me the matter could not end on that and that the issue was being referred to the acute medicine programme. I presume that means it is being referred to Dr. Barry White who has oversight of this as national director of clinical strategy and programmes.

Will the Minister elaborate on the purpose and intent of that referral? Is he asking for a further opinion on the potential of the siting of a medical assessment unit, MAU, at Monaghan General Hospital? Is Dr. White likely, working alone or with others, to come back with a different opinion from that of seven of the eight members of the group? Will the Minister accept that the terms of reference could not have been met and were not met? The words of the authors demonstrate they found the project impossible within the constraints of the six-week period.

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