Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from the request for a debate, and the concerns expressed by the Opposition Leader, Senator Darragh O'Brien, regarding the Department of Health's selection process for capital projects. I am unsettled by the suggestion that St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and Wexford General Hospital were bumped up because of Departments trading favours and the hospitals' proximity to Ministers. Senator Kelly has raised a motion on the Adjournment this evening in the context of pre-election promises to the people of Roscommon and Sligo. It is disturbing to believe that Ministers made their announcements regarding the Kilkenny and Wexford hospitals without the HSE board's awareness. This is not to take from the worthiness of the projects in question, but to ask whether other hospitals were more worthy or urgent. Yesterday, the Minister was colourful in his description of portakabins at one site and the use of a former pharmacy in another instance, but those circumstances are replicated throughout the entire country. The flippancy of the Taoiseach is not welcome in dealing with what on the surface amounts to blatant corruption in most people's eyes.

These issues need to be clarified. In Sligo, for example, a major capital project was announced in 2010 and is undergoing various processes in the HSE. The people of Sligo and the north west would be as anxious as those in Roscommon to know what progress there has been. While I acknowledge the best efforts of the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, Deputy McLoughlin and Senators O'Keeffe and Comiskey, they are not in Cabinet. Is it the case that a hospital must be in proximity to a Minister to secure the progression of a capital project?