Jimmy Harte (Labour)

Perhaps Senator Mooney will be wearing a white coat the next day. I call on the Leader to invite the Minister for Health to the Seanad to discuss the issue of Letterkenny accident and emergency unit, which is 90% completed. We are awaiting the receiver to sort out the issue in respect of McNamara Construction. The reason I raise the issue today is because I was at a meeting last night involving a cancer group and Oireachtas Members. It was put to us that even if the accident and emergency unit were completed next week, no staff are available to man it. The accident and emergency unit was due to open this September but it appears it may be 2012, more than 12 months from now, before it opens. If it were completed tomorrow, indications from the HSE are that no staff are available to run the accident and emergency unit to make it viable. I call on the Minister to come to the House to clarify the issue to my satisfaction and that of the people of the north west who have been waiting on this accident and emergency unit for years.

If the Seanad is to be of any use, the Minister must explain the position to the House in order that I can return to County Donegal on Thursday with an answer for the people concerned. I ask the Leader to seek clarification from the Minister as to whether the accident and emergency unit - whenever it opens, whether tomorrow, next month or at a later date - will be staffed.