Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to have a chance to speak about these Revised Estimates for public services. I take the opportunity to urge that a closer scrutiny be made of how moneys are spent in various Departments to ensure they are not wasted, as we have seen happen with projects such as the children's hospital. That is one of many instances where massive amounts of money have been paid out.

A total of €58 million has been allocated to the Department of Health to support greater access to services for patients, particularly during the very challenging winter period. The Minister said this funding will be used to open additional hospital beds and provide transitional and residential nursing home scheme spaces. There is no doubt as to the importance of this additional funding, as long as it is spent in the parts of our health system that urgently need funding. One facility where spending is needed is Bantry General Hospital, and I hope the Taoiseach may be able to tell me if funding has been allocated to it. In 2008, the then Minister came to Bantry will all the usual glorious trappings to announce an endoscopy unit for the hospital. To date, nothing has been delivered. The most important money that could be spent for the benefit of the more than 80,000 people in west Cork who use the hospital is for the hiring of a full-time anaesthetist. We were told over and over again by the previous Minister for Health that services at the hospital would not be reduced. However, for those services to be retained, we need a full-time anaesthetist to be hired immediately. The programme for Government refers to a large number of hospitals where investment and improvements are to be made but there is nothing in it about Bantry General Hospital. This leaves me and many other people with serious questions to ask. Will the Taoiseach tell me today that funding for an anaesthetist for the hospital is included in that funding?

I have a question concerning the statutory instrument that was signed by the then Minister in 2016 putting off until 2021 the bringing of our community hospitals up to standard. In recent weeks, I have noticed at meetings of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response that there seems now to be an acceptance that these hospitals will not meet the new deadline that was pushed out in 2016. Will the works promised for community hospitals such as Clonakilty be delivered or will they, once again, be put on the long finger? Announcements of funding always sound good but the question will always be about where that funding goes.

I am concerned as to whether the hard-working taxpayers are getting value for money in all of this. Coronavirus testing is an area where significant savings can be made. The previous Government used the new PC-12 aircraft to take swabs to laboratories in Germany. When I asked the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, how much it was costing to get a test result, he said it was €200. We have since found out that the tests can be done for less than €50 in west Cork and elsewhere in Ireland. Why are we wasting such huge amounts of the health budget flying test samples abroad when, with a little investment in Irish laboratories, we could have same-day results for a fraction of the cost?

There are many more issues I would like to raise but there is only a minute remaining for the Taoiseach to respond.

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