Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister has brought up the future, I would like to mention something that is not referred to in the report or in his reply. All of the experts have said that a maternity hospital - this is likely to be the Coombe, which needs to be replaced - needs to be co-located with the new children's hospital. He avoided any mention of that when he spoke about the wonderful hospital of the future. According to the dedicated doctors, medics and nursing staff, it will not be a wonderful hospital of the future unless there is a co-located maternity hospital. As medical technology develops, the danger to the sickest babies can be predicted. The report makes incredibly sad reading. The Minister has said that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has accepted two recommendations. I presume he is referring to recommendations Nos. 10 and 11. Recommendation No. 11 is that a "central assurance and challenge function should be established within Government". Is he saying he will establish such a function within his Department to enable it to ride shotgun on future projects? When we heard yesterday about the €3 billion cost of the broadband programme, the Taoiseach did not seem to have a clue what that was made up of. I do not know whether the Minister has a clue what it is made up of.

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