Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I join in welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, to the House. It is important to have the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works in the House when we are discussing hospital building and development.

I am glad extra funding has been provided for the health service this year. As the Minister of State, Deputy Lenihan, said, health is the biggest area of extra funding this year. The Western Health Board has been given 15% extra funding for 2002, or 20% if one includes the funding for the health board's takeover of Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. There has been considerable development in Ballinasloe. When the Franciscan sisters decided two years ago to extend the hospital, the Government provided £6 million for that project. The Government has provided a further £11 million for the purchase of the hospital. Portiuncula Hospital will now be a public hospital and will not be sold into private hands, as many people feared. The decision to purchase the hospital in Ballinasloe was a good one. It will serve the western region and much of the midlands.

The Western Health Board has also purchased the Bon Secours Hospital in Tuam and this hospital will remain in public ownership. The programme for the Tuam hospital campus has gone to Government in the last few weeks and I hope the Minister for Health will look favourably at the proposal to have a first class health campus, including a good community hospital and other services which are needed in the north Galway and south Roscommon area, in Tuam. I have a particular interest in this hospital because my brothers and sisters and I were born there, as were many of the people of north Galway.

The issue of bed availability which was raised by the Minister of State, Deputy Lenihan, is important. The Minister of State mentioned the provision of 3,000 beds in the next ten years. We have a problem in Galway regarding step-down accommodation. In County Mayo, there are several small district hospitals but Galway, the biggest county in the west and the second biggest in Ireland, is in need of more step-down accommodation. Patients who are recovering from operations are not in a position to go home and need nursing care. Small community hospitals are ideal for this type of service.

There are considerable problems in the maternity section of University College Hospital in Galway and there are similar problems in Ballinasloe. Many asylum seekers, who arrive in Ireland after horrific treatment in the countries they have left and traumatic journeys, see a doctor for the first time when they are about to give birth. Hospitals need extra resources to deal with this issue. I ask the Minister to look at the situation in Galway where there were 300 births to asylum seekers in the first nine months of this year. Extra funding is required for the maternity unit in Galway.