Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

To take up Senator O'Brien's comment about the special needs assistants, SNAs, and the resource teaching hours, which I welcome, am I right in assuming that SNAs help people with special needs to be there to be educated? It is wonderful that we have the resource teachers in place but the SNAs help those people in great need to take part in the education. The Minister has made a mistake. He has one half of the jigsaw in place, and I was excited when I heard about it, but unfortunately a big part of the jigsaw is missing. I ask that he might put the other piece of the jigsaw in place at next week's Cabinet meeting.

I congratulate Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals on the world-class fund-raising initiative they have just launched, which I am sure all Members have seen. It is called Heaven Cent. It is a wonderful website and wonderful marketing, which I am sure is costing them a fair deal of money.

This is instead of having the much-needed children's hospital which was promised by 2014. It now looks like it will be 2018, and if I were a betting person judging on the track record so far I would say it might be 2020 before we get our new hospital. Three hospitals, in Tallaght, Crumlin and Temple Street, must maintain front-line services in children's medicine. Metaphorically speaking, the hospitals in Crumlin and Temple Street must fund-raise and pay for marketeers and websites to pay for fixing the leaks in the roof. Between 1996 and 1998 my sick child was in Crumlin many times and I used to sleep under the bed. The father of a seven year old boy, who was nursed by the Jack and Jill foundation when he was a baby and is in Crumlin again told me things have not improved in the hospital. The child was in a two-bed room and the mother of the little girl who was also in the room was sleeping under her bed. This boy's father, Declan, is 6 ft. 2 ins. tall and could not fit under the bed so had to sleep opposite the bed with his head under the sink.

The hospital in Crumlin is outstanding but this is happening in 2013. The Cathaoirleach will ask me what is my point. I would like the Leader to seek assurance and an update from the Minister. In business we use the phrase "critical path" to mean having certainty about dates when things will happen. What is the Minister's strategy and what are his clear plans for the children's hospital?

With regard to the Anglo Irish Bank tapes, my company, Lily O'Brien's, had a problem with the bank a few years ago. I know every conversation is taped. Why on earth did it take so long for us to hear these tapes?