Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My question is for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I want to raise my concerns about the future of St. Patrick's Hospital in Cashel and the services currently operating out of there. We submitted parliamentary questions on numerous occasions and were told money had been ring-fenced for the hospital but now, after four years, some bright engineer has decided it is not big enough for the 60-bed unit. It looks as though the Government is telling us to look elsewhere and not to worry about St. Patrick's Hospital, but we have seen this before and had a similar response in regard to St. Brigid's hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. It is being closed by stealth.

I want the Minister of State to produce minutes of a meeting to show why the St. Patrick's site is not good enough for the 60-bed unit for which the money was ring-fenced. We asked about engineers’ reports for St. Brigid's hospital, the Owenacurra Centre and Clifden hospital, but there do not seem to be any. If engineers are taking four years to decide a site is not big enough, I think it is time the Government changed its engineers. Any smart engineer, having looked a site, will be able straight away to tell you whether it is big enough. Will the Minister of State produce minutes of the meeting at which a decision was taken that the St. Patrick's site is not big enough, and an engineer's report to that effect?

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