Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

With my colleagues, I ask the Deputy Leader to bring the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, into the Chamber, regarding the shameful situation where, while €2.4 million was allocated in the budget for 2006 for a sexual assault unit for Mullingar hospital and the regional hospital in Galway, nothing has happened. Money was also allocated for Letterkenny but that unit is still closed. If a woman has been traumatised and raped, there is nowhere for her to go, as a victim, other than to Dublin.

I put myself in the shoes of an unfortunate woman who has been raped. What must it be like to get into a car and travel to Dublin? For her case to stand up she must be forensically examined. What are we doing about it? Where is the €2.4 million that was allocated for this purpose? Doctors and nurses have been forensically trained and I welcome that, but there is no reason this unit has not opened. Everything is in place and it is poised to open. The director of the Rape Crisis Centre, Ms Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, said she cannot explain it and the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, could not give an answer. Will the Deputy Leader find out why this unit has not opened? He should bring the Minister in here to tell us when the centre will open so that women who have been so badly traumatised will not have to go through such a horrific experience?