Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Senator Morrissey raised the issue of unzoned land and asked whether there is now a compulsion to rezone it for development in the light of an advertisement he saw regarding the group set up under Sustaining Progress. He also requested that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, attend the House.

Senator Bannon said that the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, should attend the House. She should be commended on getting the report done. If it had not been written, how would we know the degree of cleanliness in the various hospitals? We should not decry her. It was not pleasant to be presented with such a report, but she sought its completion, and now there is a benchmark towards which she will work. We should condemn the state of some of the hospitals and not someone who had a report carried out.