Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am just concerned about the use of the words "being examined". That is not going to sort my problem out. There is a new unit that has been physically built and is fully equipped, ready to roll, and there will be no use of that facility for at least three months now. We intended to open it in the middle of December. It will now not be opened because this post has not been sanctioned. My understanding is that this has been sitting on someone's desk for a long period of time now. I am asking the Minister for Health to instruct the HSE to make the funding available so the post can be advertised. I am disappointed with this reply. I understood that this was a case of someone signing off and then we could proceed to advertise the post. The Minister of State is now more or less saying that nothing is going to happen until some time in January, and probably the end of January, which means we will not be opening this new outpatient unit and these two new theatres until next July. This is not good enough. The funding has been made available by the Department and the HSE to do the building work. All of that is done. There were delays in certain aspects of those contracts. In fact, I had expected us to be opening the unit this time last year. We have delayed it 12 months and now we are going to have a delay of another six months. I am saying it is not good enough. We have to get the funding sanctioned and get that done before the end of this Dáil term. Otherwise, we are going to drag on for another six months with huge money being expended and the unit not being used. At the same time, there are people travelling to Northern Ireland in order to get ophthalmology treatment. It is not good enough. The reply is not acceptable. The wording "being examined" is not what I wanted to hear tonight.

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