Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

Can I also ask about the money that has been raised by the Friends of St. Luke's Hospital? The Minister of State might not know that €26 million has been raised by the group. The funds in question are probably not with the HSE. I hope they are not, because the HSE would probably spend them on something else. I am sure the Friends of St. Luke's Hospital have their own bank account. The board of the group might be looking after the money. What will happen to the funds when the doors of St. Luke's Hospital have closed and the hospital does not exist any more?

After reading the letter to which I have referred, I believe it is a shame and an indictment of us all that someone in the late stages of cancer was treated in such a small treatment room. When the light was turned on in the room, it burned the head of the poor lady, who was in her final weeks of her suffering with cancer. I congratulate her brave sister for putting together this letter, which reads like a diary. I am sure it must have been terrible. She tried to comfort her adult nieces and nephews. Although I have not had such an experience, I do not think anyone would be very patient or polite if they had to watch a loved one, particularly their mother, dying of cancer after spending 24 hours in a room that is fit for no more than having a corn pared, or some other kind of minor surgery. I should mention that the woman who spoke on radio this morning said she had nothing against the front-line staff who did everything in their power to make her sister comfortable.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, to try to shine some light, for everybody's sake, on the question of whether an undertaking will be given that the moneys which accrue when St. Luke's Hospital closes in 2014 or 2015 will be ring-fenced and used solely for the treatment of cancer.