Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Dooley for sharing his time. I also thank the Minister of State for coming into the House to address this thorny issue. He will be fully aware from his several visits to County Clare of the urgency to provide this project and the necessity to ensure that the planning process for it is expedited. The funding for the project was set aside and ring-fenced a number of years ago. Members of the public were assured by Ministers and the Taoiseach that it will proceed.

I am not happy that, for whatever bureaucratic reasons, the project has not proceeded to the planning application stage. There are a number of stages in the process and people, especially the community in County Clare, who are keen to see this project built find that frustrating. It is also frustrating for the medical personnel in the hospital, the nursing staff and the patients who are waiting to see work on this project commence. Various stages of the process have been delayed by bureaucratic requirements, which are difficult to explain to members of the public.

We would like the Minister of State to give an assurance tonight that there will be no further undue delay in getting this project under way. We would also like him to give a direction to expedite the plans in order that it will be possible to proceed with application for planning permission, a decision on which will take some time to come through. We need to see progress in getting this valuable project under way and the people of County Clare need to be assured that their health will be protected by the provision of an adequate hospital facility in Ennis for the county.

The Minister of State is also aware there is an ongoing issue in respect of a CAT scanner at the hospital and that there was a proposal to provide the hospital with a second-hand scanner. Administrators and staff at the hospital are not satisfied with this offer and want a modern efficient CAT scanning arrangement put in place. I understand that some funding was provided in the Estimates this year for this purpose and Senator Dooley and I would like to see the matter expedited. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and hope that he will be able to shed some light on the subject.