Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an essential piece of infrastructure for the midland region. Currently, an adult patient in the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, has to be referred to the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, while a paediatric patient has to be referred to Dublin. Given the fact that Mullingar is a paediatric hospital for the midlands, this is simply unacceptable as it is causing seriously long delays for our patients.

I will give the Minister of State a brief history of this issue. A number of years ago the HSE promised the community of Mullingar that if it paid for the scanner the HSE would stump up and build and staff the unit with the specialist staff required. I want to acknowledge the Friends of Regional Hospital Mullingar, the group which was established, and I thank the many fundraisers, both small and big. We had a fundraiser in memory of the late Johnny Murphy, which raised €205,000, we had cake sales, 5K road races,; families climbed Croagh Patrick and schools had pyjama days and we had crazy hair days. As a result of this array of fundraising efforts, the target has now been met and the MRI scanner funding is now in place to purchase this scanner.

The Department, which I acknowledged, has approved bringing the building to design and planning stage and the HSE officials have over the last number of months been engaging with the planning authority to try to address any of the obstacles that may be in the way when an official planning application is made. I understand now that many of those obstacles have been addressed, many of the challenges have been ironed out and it is anticipated that a formal planning application will be made by the HSE to Westmeath County Council in a matter of weeks.

The reason I raise this issue today is to seek assurances that once this planning application is approved - it is anticipated that this will happen in a matter of months - there will be no delay in advancing resources to bring this project to the next and final stages, which is the tender and construction stages. This is an essential piece of infrastructure for early diagnosis, for investigation of many conditions, including stroke and cardiology and for people attending for surgery and the casualty units. It is also critical as the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, is the main maternity hospital for the midlands. Anybody with a knowledge of maternity care will know that best practice for babies born prematurely is to ensure they have an MRI scan.

We have come a long way, thanks to the Trojan efforts of the Friends of Regional Hospital Mullingar committee but also thanks to the huge voluntary efforts of so many people who have arranged so many fundraisers. The funding is in place for the MRI scanner. We are ready to lodge a planning application to Westmeath County Council in a matter of weeks and we should have a planning decision within a matter of months. What I want today are assurances that there will be no delay in advancing the necessary resources to bring this to the tender and construction stages.

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