Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

In respect of No. 1, may I ask the Acting Leader why the House is not taking this matter today? As I understand it, the relevant committees have not yet debated the sectoral plans produced in the various Departments. As this legislation was put in place in 2005 after a gestation period of approximately four years, the House has a responsibility to debate the matter as soon as possible. I ask him to comment in this regard.

I ask the Acting Leader and all Members to reflect on the distinctive and important role played by the Church of Ireland since the foundation of the State and on the particular ethos that has been brought to bear on Irish medicine and Irish medical practices over many years. In that light, the House should note the strong comments made yesterday by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Reverend John Neill, when he referred to the ongoing controversies surrounding the selection of the new national paediatric hospital, in which a decision has been made in favour of the Mater Hospital.

I raised this issue on the Adjournment last week and received an admission from the Government that no scoring mechanism was put in place by the evaluation task force regarding the six hospitals that made bids for the new national paediatric centre. Although this was the most important medical decision to be taken in respect of children for a generation, the six bids were not scored. To make matters worse, the very terms of reference for that evaluation task force was a McKinsey report containing nine criteria upon which the decision should have been based. However, the Department of Health and Children has admitted that the evaluation task force did not score each bid according to the set nine criteria.

Given Archbishop Neill's comments yesterday and the widespread public concern regarding the fairness of the evaluation process, the House should have a debate on this matter as soon as possible. This is particularly important in view of the comments made by the chairman of the Mater Hospital who stated that the Taoiseach had given an absolute promise, before the evaluation process had taken place, that the facility would end up in the Mater Hospital.

This is not simply a Dublin issue as it affects the best decision for paediatrics nationwide. While we have one chance to make the correct decision, an admission has been made that on a major piece of medical infrastructure, no evaluation ending up with a scoring mechanism took place. This was admitted in the House, at approximately 9.30 p.m. last Wednesday, 11 October. The House must return to this issue soon and I ask the Acting Leader to facilitate this.

I congratulate both Governments for the agreement reached between them last week at St. Andrew's. It is the responsibility of all mainstream political parties in both jurisdictions to support the Governments in their efforts during the coming months to bring about devolved shared government in Northern Ireland. Whatever difficulties may remain, I believe the basis is now in place to find an agreement that will bring about devolved government. I congratulate the Governments on this and ask the Acting Leader to facilitate a debate on the matter next week. I do not seek the Taoiseach's attendance in the House, as any of the three Ministers serving in the Department of Foreign Affairs would suffice to set out a paper and hear the response from all sides.